Cyber reservists

The announcement by the MOD (below) of the formation of a 'cyber reservists' unit has been well trailed in several policy speeches. It is a recognition that the MOD and the military do not possess sufficient skills in the depth needed to cope with the very real cyber threat which the UK government has identified, writes Nick Watts.

The nature of the cyber threat to Britain's economic well-being has been identified as posing a threat to an economy which is largely service based and which relies to a large extent on high tech design, research and financial services. This poses a risk of both e-crime and the theft of high value Intellectual Property from major UK manufacturers.

The military threat is similar in that the MOD's networks are constantly being probed by unfriendly actors to exploit weaknesses. Military campaigns also rely to a large extent on ITC systems to enable both communications and mission planning, particularly where precision guided munitions and Remotely Piloted Aerial Systems (RPAS) are central to a successful outcome.

This unit the Joint Cyber Unit (Reserve) will be able, once it is fully recruited, to monitor MOD systems and campaign planning systems when the UK deploys forces. It has also been announced that this unit will give the UK the capability take the offensive in cyber space. This it is hoped will act as a deterrent, but while cyber-attacks remain largely un-attributable it remains to be seen whether this development will have the desired effect.

The UK military is moving away from the "old style" of waging war: fewer tanks and artillery pieces. This developments points towards the future. There is no guarantee that training and equipping for cyber war is going to be any cheaper than for conventional war.

 The Defence Secretary has  announced that Britain will build a dedicated capability to counter-attack in cyber-space and, if necessary, to strike in cyber space as part of our full-spectrum military capability.