The head of the British army is to make a public plea for more cash today, warning that the cyber-capabilities of hostile nations like Russia and China are pulling ahead.
General Sir Nick Carter will make the speech at the Royal United Services Institute, highlighting Russian advances in cyber-warfare.
He’ll claim that Britain’s ability to defend itself "will be eroded if we don't keep up with our adversaries,” according to the BBC.
Threats to the UK “are now on Europe’s doorstep,” he will add.
The speech has the backing of new defense secretary Gavin Williamson, who is also thought to be pushing the chancellor hard for more funds.
While Europe may be more fractured from a security and defense perspective following Brexit, the UK is still a key member of Nato, which has a collective defense clause where an attack on one member is regarded as an attack on all.
The military alliance has also repeatedly claimed it now regards “cyber” as a legitimate domain alongside land, sea and air, although attribution is still a major blind spot online.
Huntsman Security head of product management, Piers Wilson, claimed the army needs to spend in the right areas.
“Our defenses could spend every penny available on people and tools and it still wouldn’t be enough to keep us secure. After all, we are still in the midst of a crippling security skills shortage that is expected to result in over 1.5m open jobs by 2020,” he argued.
“Intelligent automation, leveraging AI and analytics, can help defense analysts avoid running down endless rabbit holes and be smarter about defending all areas of the nation from attack. Cyber-defense isn’t just a matter of deploying people where they are needed, but giving them the right tools and technology to do the job - and this carries over into the commercial world too.”
Both Prime Minister Theresa May and NCSC boss Ciaran Martin called out Russia last year for increasing attacks on the UK’s media, telecoms and energy sectors.