A cyber-attack will kill soon warns GCHQ’s former chief
‘You no longer need to be an expert’
THE former head of GCHQ says cyber-attacks could soon become so serious as to cause injury and death.
Robert Hannigan said most people think the main risk is in having their bank details stolen but digital security breaches could be far more dangerous.
In a chilling warning yesterday, he said: ‘The risk of miscalculation is huge. We haven’t yet seen anyone killed or seriously injured as the result of a cyber attack.
‘But if you start to tamper with digital control systems, if you start to tamper with health systems... it feels like it is only a matter of time before somebody gets hurt – and somebody is ultimately killed.’
His remarks come a year after the WannaCry attack which crippled the NHS after ruthless hackers demanded payment to unlock computers. Nearly 7,000 appointments had to be cancelled.
Mr Hannigan, who left the government spy agency last year after three years at the helm, delivered his warning to the Infosecurity Europe conference in London. He said terror groups such as Islamic State were currently a ‘thousand miles away’ from the ability to launch ‘catastrophic, destructive cyber attacks’ but that might not always be the case.
The software tools and ‘ managed services’ needed to achieve such an attack were available with a few clicks on the dark web and were ‘pretty cheap’, often costing only a few hundreds pounds.
‘You no longer need to be an expert to do it,’ he warned. ‘This is low cost and easy to do – it has fundamentally changed the threat and escalated the threat.’
But although criminal groups were getting better at manipulating the net, there was now a clear skills shortage in the UK of people able to fight them off.
Mr Hannigan, who created Britain’s National Cyber Security Centre after pushing for GCHQ’s work to become more transparent, also warned that hostile nation-states were likely to begin ‘sponsoring’ cyber-terrorism .
‘Terrorism is obviously changing,’ he said. ‘With the defeat of Isil on the ground and the end of the physical caliphate, terrorism is more distributed, but it’s still a big problem here in the UK and it’s still a big problem online.’
He also spoke of Moscow’s alleged interference in issues such as the US presidential election and Britain’s Brexit referendum using fake social media accounts.
‘The Russian threat has grown because of its aggressive intent, and of course cyber-attacks in general are growing – in volume and sophistication,’ he said.
Meanwhile, Russian leader Vladimir Putin has warned that a third world war ‘could end civilisation’ on the planet.
During his annual phone-in from members of the public yesterday he was asked by one caller if ‘nonstop’ sanctions could spark global conflict.
He quoted Albert Einstein, saying: ‘I know not with what weapons World War Three will be fought, but World War Four will be fought with sticks and stones.’
Mr Putin added yesterday: ‘The understanding that a third world war could be the end of civilisation should restrain us from extreme steps on the international arena that are highly dangerous.
‘U.S. withdrawal from treaties on anti-ballistic missiles is an attempt to put an end to strategic parity, but we will respond to this.
‘We believe that the unilateral introduction of all kinds of sanctions does not resolve problems, it only worsens them.’