UK ‘must hit back at cyber attackers’

CYBER attacks on British infrastructure should be treated in the same way as bombing raids or armed assaults, a senior Government minister said yesterday.

Attorney General Jeremy Wright said the UK had the right under international law to retaliate without warning if key services like nuclear reactors and air traffic control towers came under online threat.

Those that caused or risked “death and destruction” would trigger a defensive action, he told the Chatham House foreign affairs think tank in London.

But Britain’s response would not necessarily have to be “symmetrical” to the threat.

The threat of cyber attack from states such as Russia and North Korea, aimed at disabling infrastructure or skewing elections, has become an increasing concern.

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“Such acts must surely be a breach of the prohibition on intervention in the domestic affairs of states,” said Mr Wright.

“A breach of this principle of non-intervention provides victim states with the ability to take action in response that would otherwise be considered unlawful, but which is permissible if it is aimed at returning relations between a hostile state and the victim state to one of lawfulness and bringing an end to the prior unlawful act.”

The Government’s approach of “name and shame” has seen North Korean-linked hackers blamed for the WannaCry ransomware attack which hit NHS computers last year.

Russia was also blamed for hacking into Democratic Party emails in the run-up to the 2016 US presidential vote.

Mr Wright added: “International law is clear – states cannot escape accountability simply by the involvement of such proxy actors, acting under their direction and control.”