Hoax bomb threats to Scotland's schools show why we must improve our cyber defences
Amid ‘hybrid warfare’ by hostile states, the UK needs to boost its cyber defences and cyber-crime fighting capabilities
For the second time in less than a month, Scotland’s schools have been thrown into chaos by emailed bomb threats. Schools in Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland and Italy were also sent what the authorities quickly deemed to be hoax messages.
This came after bomb threats were made against flights in Europe last week, prompting diversions and other travel disruption. In France and other European countries, hackers also managed to raise the temperatures of supermarket fridges and freezers, causing the loss of tons of frozen and chilled food.
The French authorities have blamed Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps for the fridge hacks; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni pointed the finger at pro-Russian hackers for the bomb hoaxes; and an emailed threat to airport authorities in Rome purported to come from an anti-feminist group.
Putin’s hybrid warfare campaign
But whether such attacks come from hostile dictatorships or shadowy domestic groups, the over-riding lesson is clear: we need to get much better at dealing with such incidents and catching those responsible, while the punishment for such crimes must be severe.
Reckless campaigners in this country tempted to engage in such activities need to realise they would effectively be siding with Vladimir Putin’s campaign of ‘hybrid warfare’ against the West. Acts of treason – for that is what it would be – are no way to advance any cause.
The internet age has made malicious communications easy to send to large numbers of people, a fact of modern life that’s been supercharged by AI bots.
The current attacks may seem relatively trivial but if they continue to escalate they will become considerably more than a nuisance. Repeated disruptions of the normal operation of daily life would eventually affect the economy, particularly if hackers manage to infiltrate the systems of banks, the government and the NHS, for example. There’s also the risk that we are being set up for complacency in advance of real bombs being planted.
We have previously called for the UK to set up a Ministry of Cyber Defence to help protect vital national infrastructure, public services and private companies. These latest incidents provide yet more reasons why action is necessary.