UK to help vulnerable countries against Russia, China cyber threat

Britain said that it would invest 22 million pounds ($31 million) to help vulnerable countries in Africa and the Indo-Pacific. This is to build up their cyber defences to prevent China, Russia and others from filling a cyberspace vacuum.

Dominic Raab, the British foreign minister said that Britain and its partners needed to take action to ensure there was a cyberspace that was free, open and peaceful in the face of hostile states seeking to undermine democratic elections and turn the internet into a lawless space. He also said at an online security conference that they have got to win the hearts and minds across the world in a much broader space for our positive vision of a cyberspace. And this is for the benefit of the whole world.

Raab also said that they have also got to prevent China, Russia and others from filling the multilateral vacuum. This means that doing a lot more to support the poorest and most vulnerable countries who are most at risk.

Russia’s foreign intelligence service, known as the SVR, was responsible for the SolarWinds hack. And this has led to the compromise of nine federal agencies and hundreds of private sector companies. Britain said this during last month and also joined with the United States.

Britain’s top cyber spy also warned that the West needed to act urgently. This is to ensure that China does not dominate important emerging technologies and gain control of the global operating system. Britain’s investment would be used to support national cyber response teams, advise on mass online safety awareness campaigns and to collaborate with global police coordination agency Interpol to set up a new cyber operations hub in Africa. This was stated by Raab.

The foreign office said that this hub would operate across Ethiopia, Ghana, Kenya, Nigeria and Rwanda to help fight cybercrime in the fast-growing economies.