01 November 2016
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"The UK must strike back at hostile states in cyberspace and be capable of mounting sophisticated cyber-attacks of its own in place of military strikes, the chancellor has said.
Philip Hammond said that unless the UK could match the cyber-attack abilities of foreign rogue states, the alternatives would only be to ignore digital attacks on Britain’s infrastructure or use military force.
Launching the government’s £1.9bn national cybersecurity strategy, Hammond said the UK had to develop “fully functioning cyber-attack capability”.
He said: “If we do not have the ability to respond in cyberspace to an attack that takes down our power networks, leaving us in darkness, or hits our air traffic control system, grounding our planes, we would be left with the impossible choice of turning the other cheek and ignoring the devastating consequences or resorting to a military response.”
See full article: UK must build cyber-attack capability, chancellor says (Guardian, link)
See: National Cyber Security Strategy 2016-2021 (pdf)
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