Britain Military Going Cyber- Warriors: MoD to hire hundreds of Cyber Geniuses and IT Professionals for their Military Cyber Units.
Britain’s ministry of defense has announced that they are formulating a military cyber team and have welcomed hackers plus IT professionals to join the units as the recruitment process is starting from October.
The UK government is segmenting a section of the military budget for devising a cyber-offensive unit by recruiting many cyber hackers and experts. This announcement was made this Sunday by the Defense Secretary of the country, Philip Hammond.
It is for the very first time that UK will be having an official team of cyber-warriors who will be assigned different tasks.
Hammond has been reported by AFT saying “In response to the growing cyber threat, we are developing a full-spectrum military cyber capability, including a strike capability, to enhance the UK’s range of military capabilities.”
The defense secretary has stated that a simple safety cyber unit is not enough as the scenarios in the cyber world are becoming more and more offensive, and the security requirements are becoming complex. In an interview given to The Daily Mail he said:
“We will build in Britain a cyber-strike capability so we can strike back in cyberspace against enemies who attack us, putting cyber alongside land, sea, air and space as a mainstream military activity. Our commanders can use cyber weapons alongside conventional weapons in future conflicts.”
Hammond has also said that this opportunity is a great one for all the cyber geniuses out there as it will allow them to utilize their skills on a bigger platform for the good of the nation.
Enchanting a patriotic slogan is a strategic step for enticing the IT geeks into the Cyber unit of military. Hammond further added that these Cyber national guards will not have to go through the territorial fitness tests for the army. He also said that digitizing the army is going to be major reform.
The plan for the cyber unit was declassified by Hammond when he gave briefing to the Journalists. The interview or the briefing was carried out in MOD’s nuclear Bunker and this makes Hammond the first Defense secretary who has been interviewed or photographed there.
“Cyber weapons provide the tantalizing possibility of being able to cripple the enemy without inflicting lasting damage on them. No cities to rebuild, no infrastructure to reconstruct.” Hammond said, adding the innovation was very much in tune with attitudes in the US. “One of my American counterparts put it to me like this: Why would you want to bomb someone’s airfield if you could just switch it off with a cyber-attack?”
Back in March this year, USA has also announced that they are formulating 40 new cyber teams or units and they have asserted that the reason for this decision is the cyber-attacks that have been carried out by Chinese and Iranian hackers. Gen. Keith Alexander who heads the cyber command of the US and NSA has formally announced 13 out of the forty cyber units that would be solely devoted for the purpose of offensive operations.
Following US, Israel also announced launching of its Cyber Combat Training Program few months ago.
The report of the National Audit Office which was published in February has questioned the capability of Britain to launch its own cyber units. The report says that Britain does not have enough Cyber geniuses that would be able to counter the cyber-attacks that are becoming more and more frequent.
The report has blamed the officials of the government that they have not been efficient or inclined towards promoting technology and science and it also quoted educational experts saying that it may take us “up to 20 years to address the skills gap at all levels of education.”
The MPs of Britain has also given out a warning to the government that they are very much vulnerable to cyber-attacks because of the reason that our military is very much dependent on cyber communication systems.
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