Government to spend £22m on army cyber warfare centres

The cyber warfare centres will be up-and-running in the early 2020s

The government will spend £22m building a series of specialist operations centres across the country in a bid to bolster its cyber warfare capabilities.

The aim, it claims, is to put the army at the forefront of information warfare, with the centres bringing together expertise from areas such as national intelligence and open source data.

We know all about the dangers. Whether the attacks come from Russia, China or North Korea

According to the officials, the centres will "give the army the competitive edge across all environments" and "draw together cyber capability from a range of sources"

In an announcement, the government said the centres will provide the army with "24/7 information and analysis, dispel misinformation and give the UK Armed Forces and our allies the upper hand on emerging digital threats".

The centres will be used for a range of purposes, including overseas operations, humanitarian missions and protecting UK digital communications. They'll work with existing army facilities, such as the 77 Brigade, as well as joint and other national security organisations.

AI & Machine Learning Live is returning to London on 3rd July 2019. Hear from the Met Office's Charles Ewen, AutoTrader lead data scientist Dr David Hoyle and the BBC's Noriko Matsuoka, among many others. Attendance is free to qualifying IT leaders and senior IT pros, but places are limited, so reserve yours now.

While the government has yet to announce locations for the centres, it confirmed that building would start next year and that operations would commence sometime in the early 2020s.

Defence Secretary Penny Mordaunt said: "We know all about the dangers. Whether the attacks come from Russia, China or North Korea. Whether they come from hacktivists, criminals or extremists. Whether it is malware or fake news. Cyber can bring down our national infrastructure and undermine our democracy.

"It's time to pay more than lip service to cyber. We must convince our adversaries their advances simply aren't worth the cost. Cyber enemies think they can act with impunity. We must show them they can't. That we are ready to respond at a time and place of our choosing in any domain, not just the virtual world.

We need coherent cyber offense, as well as defence

"We need coherent cyber offense, as well as defence. So today I can announce we will be investing £22m to create new cyber operations centres."

The news comes as the UK military has been ordered to improve its cyber capabilities as part of the £1.9 billion investment in the National Cyber Security Strategy, which is intended to help boost the country's security.

Recent developments include the creation of the National Cyber Security Centre, which is comprised of government, intelligence agencies and the private sector, and the state-of-the-art Defence Cyber School.

Major General Tom Copinger-Symes, General Officer Commanding Force Troops Command, added: "These new cyber centres will allow the Army and defence to transform the way we use data, at speed, so that we can compete with our adversaries in a way fit for the 21st Century.

"Combining artificial intelligence with our military analysts will help us better understand threats and exploit opportunities, in turn enabling us to get the truth out much more rapidly, quashing the noise of disinformation from our enemies."

Cloud & Infrastructure Live 2019 returns to London on 19th September 2019. Learn about the latest technologies in cloud, how to keep one step ahead of the regulators, and network with an audience of IT leaders and senior IT pros. The event will include keynotes, panel discussions, case studies, and strategic and technical streams. Best of all, the event is FREE to qualifying attendees. Secure your place now.

Attending Cloud & Infrastructure Live 2019 already? Why not enter the Computing Cloud Excellence Awards that will be celebrated in the evening, too?