Daily Times

The recent reports and official warnings by the UK government about the intensifying threat of cyber terrorism in the print and electronic media prompted torment and cheerlessness in investment and business firms across the country. Cyber security organisations are desperately seeking ways to counter it effectively while private business firms are looking towards the most trusted intelligence agency, the Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) for a precursor action against the clandestine networks of hackers and cyber jihadists. As we are being told about the sensitivity of this violent security threat, our intelligence agencies are also restive and anxious about the day-to-day changing mechanism of cyber terrorist groups. The recent violent attacks on the Home Office, Foreign Office, private industry and market economy forced the GCHQ to request cyber technology experts for help in preventing these exacerbating attacks.

The country’s Emergency Response Team (ERT) is in hot water as it failed to respond positively. As part of a £ 650 million government investment in countering cyber terrorism, the unit has the core responsibility to respond to the looming threat of economic jihadists more effectively. Government officials in their statements warned government and private firms time and again that Russian, Chinese, Indian and North Korean cyber armies use modern technologies to steal important data. The Cameron government is in deep water and is unable to challenge the hidden enemy with a strong resolve. His government has spent billions of pounds to counter cyber armies in a professional way but no specific achievement has been made so for. The reaction of law enforcement agencies, private cyber firms and the GCHQ is confined to circumventive narratives and are unable to satisfy business communities.

Government agencies are being attacked up to 33,000 times a month by cyber terrorist networks. For public gratification, the GCHQ told the media that the agency was struggling to recruit more people into the cyber security field while the country is at risk of being “left behind and at a disadvantage globally”. The UK asks that, being a member state of the Eye-Five intelligence alliance, which has developed the strongest surveillance mechanism, why has it failed to respond to this violent threat effectively? Every year, the Cameron government highlights cyber terrorism as one of its priorities alongside international terrorism but its forces still need to be adorned with modern technology. When the crises deepened, Prime Minister David Cameron announced a £ 1.1 billion investment in a military programme to tackle these modern threats posed by global terrorism and economic jihadists.

This money will mostly be used to pay for new hi-tech surveillance and intelligence gathering equipment. Recently, the head of counter terrorism in the Metropolitan Police Department, Mark Rowley, appealed to the public for help in identifying jihadist terrorists in communities. Terror-related incidents have increased fivefold. “The growth of dangerous individuals poses challenges for policing, especially when nearly half of Syria travellers of concern were not known as terrorist risks previously,” Rowley revealed.

In 2013, NATO responded to this economic jihad in the case of the Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre for Excellence and published a 330-page report that prompted reaction from Russia. The document was called ‘Tallinn Manual of Cyber Warfare.’ The manual’s biggest section is devoted to cyber attacks that accompany traditional armed conflicts. In March 2014, NATO and its allies experienced cyber attacks on a large scale while the Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) announced on Twitter that it had successfully hacked into the networks of CENTCOM that oversees US military operations from Turkey to Afghanistan as well as Pacific Command. In Afghanistan, underground cyber strategic commands have established strong networks and retrieve the US, NATO, UK and ISAF’s military and operational plans through their cyber warriors easily. They have trained their partners who work for them and purvey top secret military and intelligence information to their cyber commands. The attacks of Chinese and Russian cyber commandos on NATO computers and the leakage of their military secrets have raised serious questions. As the cyber war has intensified in Asia and Europe, Russia, China and India have started relying on cyber jihadists to reach the data of UK and US technological aggrandisement. They spend billions of dollars on modernising their cyber armies every year. Recently, the GCHQ launched an online game in a bid to find the cyber defence talent of the future but this game cannot help our agencies in countering these technologically adorned forces with poor strategies and recruitment.

By 2017, the defence ministry of Russia is planning to complete the formation of a special cyber security force designed to protect its armed forces’ networks. This plan is a part of the country’s programme to modernise its information security. A report from Moscow has also revealed that Russian military forces are planning to begin setting up cyber warfare forces for both defence and cyber attacks. The command of this force will be headed by an army general. The Russian media continues to publish news stories about the digitisation of the country’s armed forces to compete with US and NATO allies’ forces in Asia and Europe. The need for a cyber defence shield has been prompted by the armed forces’ transition to new types of weapons with a high share of digital components.

The Russian government has kept secret all details about the future of its cyber defence force. According to recent reports in the Russian media, this defence force will have different levels of technical, cryptographic and radio-electronic security duplicating each other and protecting strategic defence facilities. The UK government is planning to spend more funds on its cyber defence as a recent report has warned about possible cyber attacks on national critical infrastructure. The prime minister is committed to spending more money on intelligence and surveillance equipment that includes cyber defence technology. Terrorism in cyber space is increasingly considered as one of the most violent acts against the country’s financial sectors. Cyber jihad is an increasing threat to investment and business communities in the UK.

The writer is author of The Crisis of Britain’s Surveillance State. He can be reached at zai.musakhan222@gmail.com