UK leaders warned country risks ‘absorbing’ cyber and hybrid attacks without offensive deterrence

Britain risks leaving itself exposed to cyberattacks and hybrid forms of warfare unless it exercises an ability to impose costs on hostile states, ministers were warned during a parliamentary hearing on national security.

The former national security adviser Lord Sedwill — now a member of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy — said that resilience measures alone would not deter adversaries conducting cyber operations, sabotage of critical infrastructure and disinformation campaigns against the United Kingdom.

“There needs to be essentially an offensive element to deterrence, as well as simply a defensive element,” Sedwill said at the hearing on Monday, warning that Britain risks “absorbing their attacks” rather than discouraging them. His comments echo those made by Lord Dannatt, the former head of the British Army, who previously urged the government to get on the “forward foot” with ransomware instead of just “absorbing the punches.”

Read more at The Record