The comments are the most explicit confirmation by any minister so far of Britain’s appetite to carry out offensive hacks, in addition to defending its own interests against foreign cyber attacks.
Speaking on Wednesday from MoD Corsham, Britain’s military cyber HQ, Healey said: “We are under daily attack, increasing attacks, and this is the nerve centre of the UK’s military that helps us defend against these attacks. The keyboard has become a weapon of war.”
Healey added that the SDR had recognised that the war in Ukraine had proved “those that prevail will be those who are not just better equipped and better trained, but better connected and also capable of innovating ahead of adversaries”.
He said: “That’s what our new cyber command will allow us to do.”
For the past five years, the National Cyber Force has conducted hacking operations on behalf of the military, as part of a joint venture between GCHQ and the MoD.
It will now co-ordinate offensive cyber capabilities with the new Cyber and Electromagnetic Command, which will fight enemies on the web and lead defensive operations.
Details of Britain’s offensive cyber capabilities are a secret. However, action by other countries has ranged from spying on officials to installing software that forces industrial machinery to break.
Hostile countries, including Russia, China, as well as Iran and North Korea, are all deemed to have hackers who work in espionage with the aim of breaking into sensitive information online, or engaging in online ransomware attacks.
In the past two years, the MoD has been subjected to 90,000 cyber attacks – double the number in 2023 – from hostile states including Russia and China.
Healey said: “This is a level of cyber warfare that is continual and intensifying that requires us to step up our capacity to defend.”
He said that, while previous governments had spoken of the importance of cyber, it had not been promoted in a way that integrated the efforts of the RAF, British Army and Royal Navy.
“You might have seen the talk, now you’ll see the walk,” he said.
Earlier this month, a report by the Commons public accounts committee warned that crumbling government computer systems have been outpaced by cyber criminals and that the Government is lacking experts with cyber skills.
It found that more than a quarter of all public sector IT systems use vulnerable, older “legacy” technology, which has led to a significant gap between the cyber threat and the Government’s ability.
It comes after a number of British retailers suffered cyber attacks, including Marks & Spencer, Harrods and the Co-op.
National Cyber Security Centre chief executive Richard Horne told a cyber security conference at the start of this month that the number of “nationally significant” cyber attacks targeting Britain had doubled in the past six months.
As part of the new military command, more than £1b will be invested in a Digital Targeting Web that will come into action by 2027. The system, known colloquially as a “kill web”, will operate by using AI and new software to better connect military weapons systems across all three forces, enabling quicker decisions to be made on the battlefield.
This could be done by identifying a threat using a sensor on a ship or in space, before it is disabled by an F-35 aircraft, drone, or offensive cyber operation.
The new command will also exploit the military’s expertise in electromagnetic warfare, such as degrading the enemy’s command and control, jamming signals to drones or missiles and intercepting an adversary’s communications.
The MoD likened it to how the Ukrainians were able to stop a Russian advance by using technology to find the enemy quickly and attack at scale.
The new unit will sit under General Sir James Hockenhull’s responsibilities. He is currently Commander of UK Strategic Command, which oversees operations across all three services and includes cyber and space.
The MoD said that the SDR, which was announced by Labour last year to set out a path for defence over the next decade, would show how enhanced cyber defences will help bolster national security and support economic stability.
Earlier this year, the MoD announced that military recruits would be fast-tracked into specialist roles to tackle the growing cyber threat to Britain through the Cyber Direct Entry programme.
Healey said: “Ways of warfare are rapidly changing, with the UK facing daily cyber attacks on this new front line. The hard-fought lessons from Putin’s illegal war in Ukraine leave us under no illusions that future conflicts will be won through forces that are better connected, better equipped and innovating faster than their adversaries.
“We will give our Armed Forces the ability to act at speeds never seen before – connecting ships, aircraft, tanks and operators so they can share vital information instantly and strike further and faster.
“By attracting the best digital talent, and establishing a nerve centre for our cyber capability, we will harness the latest innovations, properly fund Britain’s defences for the modern age and support the government’s Plan for Change.”
