NATO in 'Hidden Cyber War' With Russia: UK Minister

Russia is planning cyberattacks on the United Kingdom and other NATO allies over their support for Ukraine, according to a British politician.

Pat McFadden, a minister whose brief includes British national security, told a meeting of the alliance about Russia's cyber warfare capabilities, which he described as a "hidden war" being waged by Moscow against Ukraine.

There have been accusations that Moscow is stepping up its hybrid warfare attacks and sabotaging critical infrastructure of Western European countries that back Kyiv.

McFadden's comments, reported by British outlets, including the BBC, before his address on Monday to the NATO Cyber Defense Conference in London, warned that Russian operations have the ability to shut down power grids and "turn off the lights" for citizens and British businesses for its "malign goals."

Newsweek has contacted the Russian Foreign Ministry and the British Foreign Office for comment.

Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with military chiefs in Moscow on November 22, 2024. The British minister Pat McFadden has said that the Kremlin is backing cyberattacks on the U.K. and other Western allies. GAVRIIL GRIGOROV/Getty Images

Moscow is suspected to be responsible for arson attacks in Poland, the U.K., the Czech Republic, Germany, Lithuania and Latvia. And German and U.S. officials said they prevented a Russian plot to assassinateArmin Papperger, the chief executive of Rheinmetall, which supplies artillery shells to the Ukrainian army.

A joint defense briefing released in September by Western intelligence agencies accused Russia's Unit 29155 of attacks to disrupt efforts to aid Ukraine.

The group is thought to be responsible for the 2018 poisonings of a former Russian double agent Sergei Skripal and his daughter in Salisbury in 2018. Local authorities in England have faced cyberattacks, some of which have been claimed by a pro-Russian hacking group.

McFadden, who is the chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, announced a new Laboratory for AI Security Research (LAISR) aimed at helping the U.K. stay ahead in "the new AI arms race."

"Cyber war is now a daily reality," McFadden said, adding that, regarding Russian alleged operations, "we are countering their attacks both publicly and behind the scenes."

Groups aligned with the Russian state have been responsible for at least nine separate cyberattacks against alliance states, the BBC said, and McFadden's comments also included a warning that "no one should underestimate the Russian cyber threat to NATO."

Moscow has reacted angrily to the British supply to Ukraine of Storm Shadow missiles, which were fired into Russia last week. Russian President Vladimir Putin said a new intermediate-range missile tested in a strike last week could be used against countries that allowed their weapons to be used to strike Russia.