Politicians Are Ignorant Of Cyber Security

For many people it feels like Technology has been developing  faster than society can keep up. Using bank cards instead of cash must have seemed highly unusual only a short time ago, but it’s become the new normal in most of the world. Hacking is no longer something that most of us only hear about in movies. It's a weekly occurrence that affects everyone. 

So when elected officials and law enforcement agencies are critical of encryption, insisting that it's an unbreakable tool for criminals and terrorists, they're ignoring the security benefits for individuals and businesses. 

Britain has some of the world’s finest cyber capabilities and GCHQ is a global leader in cyber security and intelligence, along with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which is making their expertise available to businesses to help with their digital defences. 

Unfortunately, many of the country's political leaders do not seem to properly understand the issues. 

For example, a British government Minster was recently caught on camera in an intimate embrace with a colleague, unaware of the extent of the routine surveillance at his own Departmental office. This was not a hidden device - it was a CCTV camera installed in the ceiling by Hikvision, a Chinese company contracted to the British government.

Around 1.3 million of Hikvision's CCTV cameras are being used in the UK by airports, councils, Health Service facilities and government departments. This is in spite of UK intelligence agencies advising against the use of Chinese ‘smart cities’ technology, which they fear could be used by the Chinese state for espionage, surveillance and collection of sensitive data. 

Other British government ministers have been accused of using private email accounts for government business, but the practice is believed to be widespread, including in No 10, where Prime Minister Johnson has refused to deny that he uses a private account. More than a third of Johnson’s cabinet, including the Prime Minister himself reportedly use messaging apps which allow users to set messages to be wiped automatically after a chosen period of time, in preference to more secure government networks which keep a permanent record.

In November 2019 hackers hit Britain’s two main political parties with back-to-back cyber attacks attempting to force political websites offline with a flood of malicious traffic just weeks ahead of a national election. These events were a reminder of the events of the 2016 US Presidential election, which was conducted in a storm of fake news, stolen private emails and a high level of what is now acknowledged as attempted interference by foreign governments. 

Until those elected to serve in high office and with responsibility for conducting state business are fully aware of the extent and capability of the technology that they are surrounded with, they will find themselves vulnerable to adversaries, both at home and overseas.

Reuters:       Endgadget:       Spectator:     TMB:     ZME Science: 

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