British government hackers have launched operations against militants, state-backed disinformation campaigns and attempts to interfere in elections, the GCHQ spy agency said on Tuesday in a rare statement about its offensive cyber work.
The attacks were carried out over the past three years by the secretive National Cyber Force (NCF), a hacking unit operating as of 2020 made up of spies and defense officials from the British Armed Forces and Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the eavesdropping agency said. declaration.
“In an increasingly volatile and interconnected world, for nations to be a truly responsible cyber power, they must be able to compete and compete with adversaries in cyberspace,” said GCHQ Director Jeremy Fleming.
The statement was released alongside a 28-page document designed to “illustrate aspects of how the UK is a responsible cyber power”. She did not specify the specifics of these operations.
Britain’s position as a leading hacking power, competing alongside the United States with countries including Russia, China and Iran, has long been known but rarely acknowledged.
In 2018, GCHQ revealed a series of attacks it carried out against the Islamic State. Since its inception, Britain has provided little information about the NCF’s activities.
Since it became operational, the NCF has been using its offensive cyber capabilities to protect overseas military installations and “disrupt terrorist groups,” the statement said, without elaborating.
British government hackers also countered state disinformation campaigns and worked to “reduce the threat of external interference in democratic elections,” the statement added.
The letter accompanying the statement did not say which countries spreading the disinformation the British hackers were trying to counter. But it noted that “countries such as Russia and Iran routinely conduct cyber operations of various kinds to spread disinformation.”
“NCF’s work is covert and therefore we do not disclose details of individual operations. In fact, the intention is sometimes to make adversaries unaware that the effects they are experiencing are the result of a cyber operation,” GCHQ said.
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