Specialist military 'hunt forces' to be sent overseas in bid to thwart cyber attacks

Specialist forces are being deployed overseas to try and stop cyber attacks against the UK’s defence systems, an army chief has revealed. Major General Mike Fayers, the commander of the Defence Cyber and Electromagnetic Force, described the teams involved as “hunt forces”, that look to disrupt enemy hackers. The operations often require approval from Defence Secretary Wes Streeting , with troops aiming to stop cyber attacks in their early stages in order to prevent them from escalating into large-scale attacks.

Last week, a cyber attack on several blood banks in France sought to raise temperatures to extremely high levels but was thwarted before it could do any damage to blood products or samples, authorities said. The incident came after supermarkets in a number of European countries reported that their fridges and freezers warmed up after they were remotely taken over, resulting in tons of spoiled food at a total cost of millions of euros. Read More: Britain 'not prepared for war', army chiefs warn - as they accuse Burnham's budget of 'kicking can down the road' Read More: Former Ukrainian PM says 'it was the Russians who tried to sabotage the airlines' after dozens diverted due to bomb threats In an interview with The Times, Major General Fayers said: “Our adversaries are very cunning.

This is not just an MoD (Ministry of Defence) issue, this is a whole-of-UK challenge. “We’ve seen AI now exploiting vulnerabilities at a speed we have not seen before. Whereas historically we would have had a few days to fix vulnerabilities, we are now in double-digit minutes to respond to those vulnerabilities.” Major General Fayers explained that the “hunt forces” represented a shift in focus, from defending the UK’s territory to proactively looking to defend its networks before cyberoperations take hold.

“We are trying to hunt for our adversaries in places where they prepare before they target UK military systems,” he added. “I mean sending people physically to places to virtually hunt for the adversary to protect our systems. “The threat continues to increase in both its complexity and its persistence.” Last month, fashion retailer ASOS was hit with a major cyber attack. The group has completed a full internal investigation, which it said concluded that while the hacker accessed some basic customer data – including names and contact details – this did not include payment information or account passwords.

It apologised to customers last month after they were sent a phone alert saying the online retailer had been hacked. The group said the incident was estimated to have knocked group sales, as measured by gross merchandise value, by around 2% to 4%. Meat processing firms in the UK were hit by cyber attacks last week after hackers targeted supermarket freezers across Europe. The Association of Independent Meat Suppliers (Aims) said a few of its roughly 300 members had been impacted by the hack, with fridges heating up overnight.

But because of the way that abattoirs are typically run, the units were empty at the time – so there was no impact on any food produce. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said it is working with the firms affected and that the national impact is “minimal”.