According to The Times of London, British Defense Secretary John Healey has said London will increase hacking operations as part of a new military command, including, especially, against Russia and China. RT reports: “London will significantly step up offensive cyber operations against Russia and China, U.K. Defense Secretary John Healey announced on Thursday, following the inauguration of the country’s new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command.” Healey claimed that “the keyboard is now a weapon of war” and said the U.K.’s new cyber command would coordinate both defensive and offensive operations, including hacking into enemy systems to disrupt attacks and the spread of propaganda. Asked whether this would include Russia and China, Healey responded: ‘Yes.’”
RT notes that “Healey’s statement marks the first time a British minister has explicitly confirmed cyberattacks on other states. While U.K. ministers had previously confirmed cyber operations against non-state actors like Islamic State, they have not until now acknowledged attacks against other countries.” When viewed against the backdrop of new British laws against the free use of the internet by its dissenting citizens, the real implications for the use of cyber-warfare against the population of the British Empire itself, as well as for surveillance of other countries, come into view. As in today’s Germany, so, too, in England does the smell of the 1930s arise from the City Of London un-civil service.
