Putin’s hackers could target NHS – and our homes
Dire warnings of retaliation poured forth from Moscow should the West have the impudence to launch a missile attack on Syrian targets. There were dark threats to shoot down Nato missiles and planes, or to attack our rAF base on Cyprus.
And despite no tangible response so far, it would be naive in the extreme for Britain, America and France to relax.
Just because the Kremlin hasn’t shot from the hip doesn’t mean Vladimir Putin isn’t furious and desperate for revenge. This is a man who prefers to get even rather than engage in public tantrums. He calculates the balance of power carefully.
The russian military knows it cannot win a direct clash with the Americans, though it would be a bloody affair. Moscow is well aware that though its forces in Syria give its ally, Bashar al-Assad, a decisive edge in the civil war against islamic insurgents, they are massively outnumbered and outgunned by the US and its allies in the region.
Putin knows there’s no point starting a fight with us there, and doesn’t want to squander his troops on a suicide mission. But we can’t write off his threats of ‘consequences’ for our attack on his ally. Just don’t expect him to reply in kind – Putin likes to spring surprises.
in truth, russia is likely to harass Western interests and seek soft targets to make us pay for the air strikes.
Putin will be calculating what he can do to cause us harm without damaging russia’s economy or her global standing. Being respected by the West is a key aim for Putin, who likes to strut the world stage as an acknowledged equal of US presidents. That was one reason his government pulled out all the stops to ensure russia won the right to stage the World Cup this summer. He is desperate to play the global statesman at his home tournament, and will be wary of provoking a last-minute boycott from football superpowers such as Germany, France or Spain, never mind england. That will be playing on his mind as he cooks up his plans for reprisals after this weekend’s events. in the meantime, so- called ‘deniable’ measures are likely to get the nod from the Kremlin – and primarily that means cyber-warfare. Yesterday, Boris Johnson said Britain was ready for a russian cyberoffensive, and it’s true that our brilliant listening station at GCHQ, and a host of security companies specialising in information warfare, will be on high alert.
Key government departments will also be highly watchful, as will ministers Moscow would love to embarrass with indiscreet revelations secured through russian hacking. But what about all the non-governmental computer systems not necessarily guarded by high-level security? Our infrastructure, from hospitals to transport, is based on cost- cutting, which often means saving money on cyber- security. That makes finding soft targets child’s play for troublemakers. COMPUTER- SAVVY young russians wanting to prove their loyalty to the motherland might not even need any prompting or pay from the Kremlin to hack into British and other Western infrastructure, though Putin has plenty of malcontents at his beck and call who make a living out of it. When it comes to information warfare, the Western media has proved pretty solidly anti-Putin, so disrupting television and radio signals, for example, would be an attractive target for russian hackers.
A student working at a satellite company call centre has told me how incensed subscribers become when their screen goes blank, or their set-top box doesn’t obey commands. Blotting out the FA Cup final or making the timetable screens at stations and airports go blank doesn’t cost lives, but it would raise blood pressure nationwide. And who would get the blame? Probably the Government.
even in our homes we are evermore exposed to online assault because so much of our lives is internet- enabled. The modern smart home makes a very soft target. Many people will already have heard stories of mobile phonecontrolled heating systems going berserk, or of Amazon’s Alexa information system shrieking with a mind of her own.
So what else does Putin have in his arsenal? For one thing, there’s his ability to use the energy he supplies to europe as a weapon against Britain and France. That said, spring is here and demand for gas from Siberia is slackening. Besides, Putin still wants to get paid for gas because his regime needs cash. What he could seek to do is disrupt energy supplies inside Western europe rather than from russia, for instance to interrupt electricity generation, which so often depends on gas. PUTIN is playing a game of chess on multi-layered chessboards. The one governing the Middle east remains the most unpredictable for him, as well as for us, not least because Assad is not merely a russian puppet, and there are other rogue elements on his side who are not controlled by Putin. iran and the militant group Hezbollah, as well as anti-Western russian mercenaries in Syria could stage their own terrorist attacks on our forces in eastern Syria, or on Western targets in the Middle east. i fear especially for the RAF base at Akrotiri in Cyprus, from where the Tornados flew their bombing mission on Friday night. it’s only 40 minutes from Beirut or Damascus.
So just because russia hasn’t reacted in a knee-jerk way to this salvo of missiles, we shouldn’t be deceived into thinking it’s all over. Putin sees himself in a life-and-death judo match with the West. As the weaker party, he needs to concentrate his efforts while hoping we relax ours.
Where we fear real trouble, say on russia’s borders with eastern europe, probably nothing will happen. invading the Baltics would start the ground war Putin wants to avoid.
But finding loopholes in our cyber-defences and making mischief for our worldwide interests, getting the West running around in circles, will be a victory for the Kremlin while Putin gets on with consolidating his power where it really matters – at home.