Britain To Create 2,000-Strong Cyber Force, Boost Budget By £250M (sky.com)

Slashdot reader cold fjord writes: Britain's Ministry of Defence and GCHQ signals intelligence establishment have put forward a plan to increase staff devoted to offensive cyber operations up to 2,000, quadrupling it over current levels. Funding would also increase by at least £250m, according to one source. The initiative comes "amid a growing cyber threat from Russia and after the UK used cyber weapons for the first time to fight Islamic State." General Sir Richard Barrons commented, "By adopting offensive cyber techniques in the UK we are levelling the playing field and providing new means of both deterring and punishing states that wish to do us harm."

Comments

"Cyber", the mark of incompetence...

[gweihir]

Nobody with an actual clue uses that word. They will probably only get wannabees that are eager to fulfill their authoritarian masters bidding though.

In simpler terms...

[Archtech]

"Britain is significantly increasing its ability to wage war in cyberspace..."

Translation: "to fuck up the Internet"

"... with the creation of a new offensive cyber force of up to 2,000 personnel..."

Who will apparently sit at computers and argue (futilely) with anyone they discover telling the truth on the Web. Or, if decision-makers in London are insane enough, try to damage Russian equipment and harm Russian people by screwing with their computer systems.

After all, what's to lose? It would take Russia all of half an hour and up to five per cent of its strategic warheads to render the entire UK permanently uninhabitable.

"... Sky News understands..."

Vanishingly unlikely

Re:In simpler terms...

[Anonymous Coward]

"Britain is significantly increasing its ability to wage war in cyberspace..."

Translation: "to fuck up the Internet"

The Conservative conference is about to start and the UK government is desperate for anything to distract them from the Brexit catastrophe. This is why a group of people who have regularly compared the EU to the Nazis are suddenly getting upset about a photo with no cherries. The real translation is "please don't notice the puppeteer .

Re:Russia?

[Hognoxious]

Did you see the recent episode of Question Time from Dewsbury? I grew up not far from there and frankly I'm thinking about developing a Scouse or maybe Brummie accent to avoid the stigma of being associated with such a bunch of thick ignorant cunts.

But froth froth sovereignty! Froth froth get behind the leader!

The fact that we haven't had that since the yanks told us we couldn't invade Suez seems to pass them by. As for getting behind the leader, that's what lemmings do.

There are some interesting things though, particularly the emphasis on goods rather than services. The UK is largely a financial service economy so that will effectively heavily boos the goods side relative to the services side.

I don't see that. It won't make, say, our carmakers any better than they already are, but we could still lose huge amounts of jobs and the related tax revenue from financial companies moving - which is already happening.

Referring back to QT, there was a woman on the panel who was the first to say it publicly AFAIK - what the people voted for is irrelevant it if it can't actually be done.

As to all those deals we'll be able to do, India (one of the most protectionist countries there is) told her to go pound sand last year and she's been reduced to trying to flog weapons to those lovely Turks and Saudis.