Putin has declared a cyber war on Britain – but we are ready

If you are already bored by the pre-election electioneering being mounted by UK political parties, then standby for global pre-election electioneering. This year over 2 billion people will vote for new governments across the globe: the US, the UK, Iran, India, Pakistan, Mexico, EU, Russia (a joke), Indonesia and a host of European nations. In short, a combined population of 49 per cent of the world.

That will be good news for journalists and campaigners who will benefit from the billions of pounds spent. But 2024 will also be like no other for the use of social media by those that want to destroy the rule of law and undermine democracy.

For years now, the Russian state has played a proactive and malign role in attacking elections held in the West. Get used to the terms “bots” “trolls”, “deep fakes”, and “dark web”. Trolls deliberately try and provoke online using facts or fiction, hoping to sow division, seeking to intimidate counter narratives. Russia even has a “troll factory” in St Petersburg. “Bots” on social media use automated software to repeatedly place anonymous disinformation. No prizes for guessing that China, Russia and Venezuela top the charts here.

Try to be on the lookout for “deep fakes.” Artificial intelligence can now help generate images and videos that are incredibly believable. In the war in Ukraine, US politics and Gaza we have seen them being pumped on to social media by bots and the army of supporters of one side or another. Once established, people can’t help but share them if they represent what the reader wants to believe or if they corroborate a conspiracy.

And then there is the dark web. Think of the internet as deep well of information. Ninety per cent of us get our news and information from the surface. But lurking in the depths are secrets and spies. If an adversary can release information into those depths, it knows that gossip and sensationalism will do the rest to infiltrate mainstream media. Russia has often used this method to spread Kompromat (hacked compromising information from a person or government) to destabilise elections. In 2017, Russia hacked one of Macron’s special advisors and released details of his views on political rivals two days before polling day. Our last UK 2019 election saw Russia use Reddit to post selective excerpts of hacked UK trade talks with the US. Jeremy Corbyn even brandished them at a press conference.

Our precious democracy is thus under attack like never before. Conspiracy and extremes are magnified by social media. The good news is that the UK is ahead of the pack when it comes to protecting our elections. We have GCHQ as the vanguard. The UK’S biggest intelligence agency employs some of the finest brains in the world to seek out and spot the agents of state-backed misinformation and hacking.

The National Cyber Security Centre was set up in 2016 when I was Security Minister. The NCSC provides a single point of contact for SMES, government agencies, public and business. We also established the Defending Democracy Taskforce in 2022, which is leading efforts to protect our elections.

But what tips can I give the readers? I recommend you stick with the mainstream media. While we may not always agree with the interpretation of the facts, most mainstream media will agree on the facts themselves. But we must also expect those very same media outlets to keep us safe by asking them to question the provenance of their sources. And always demand that they make clear who a contributor is and if they are paid or backed by one group or another. It is more important than you know.