Nuclear ‘games’ to deter Russia
Russia and China in attack on giant
NAVY chiefs have taken part in a top-secret nuclear war game to ensure the UK is ready for an attack by Russia.
Codenamed Global Thunder, the operation took place in the midwestern US state of Nebraska.
Top military officers, including a Royal Navy nuclear submarine commander, carried out the exercise inside a nuclear bunker.
Tensions with the Kremlin have risen since the Novichok poison attack by Russian agents in Salisbury, Wilts, earlier this year.
Ex Royal Navy officer James Roach said: “Nobody wants to see a nuclear war, but we must carry out these exercises so that in a worst-case scenario we can protect the UK and stop an attack.”
US General John E Hyten, who commanded the war games, said: “Exercises like these integrate our unique capabilities in order to deter strategic threats and defend the nation.
“Our forces must be ready and prepared to execute orders globally wherever and whenever needed.”
GOOGLE has been hijacked by Russia and China in its “worst ever” cyber attack.
Data belonging to users in Britain and across the world was intercepted by servers in the two countries, as well as Nigeria.
It sparked fears the hackers could have gained access to people’s private information.
Experts said it was a virtual “war game experiment” on the American web giant, and could be a taste of the global cyber war to come.
Google was accused of downplaying the attack. A status page said access to some of its services had been impacted, adding that the “cause” was “external to Google”. A company spokesman said: “We’re aware that a portion of internet traffic was affected by incorrect routing of IP addresses, and access to some Google services was impacted.
“The root cause of the issue was external to Google and there was no compromise of Google services.”
One expert called Monday’s hack the worst the multibillion-pound firm had ever seen.
Alex Henthorn-Iwane, from intelligence company ThousandEyes, said it may have been “a war-game experiment”.
He added that he suspected “nation-state involvement”, putting Russian president Vladimir Putin and Chinese premier Xi Jinping in the frame.
A recent study by the US Naval War College and university scholars in Tel Aviv, Israel, claimed China regularly hijacks and diverts internet traffic.
ThousandEyes said it showed the “vulnerability of the internet”.
It is also feared that it “put valuable Google traffic in the hands of internet service providers in countries with a long history of online surveillance”.
Google added that it has conducted an internal investigation in the hope of making “appropriate improvements” to help prevent a future recurrence of the issue.