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Moscow is prepared to launch a wave of cyberattacks against NATO allies that could leave millions without power, according to a senior United Kingdom minister.
Russia is “exceptionally aggressive and reckless in the cyber realm,” Cabinet Office Minister Pat McFadden, whose portfolio includes national security, is expected to tell participants at a NATO cybersecurity conference in London on Monday.
“Given the scale of that hostility, my message to members today is clear: No one should underestimate the Russian cyber-threat to NATO,” he will say, according to prepared remarks shared in advance by his ministry.
The comments come as tensions between NATO and Russia reach a new high. Russian President Vladimir Putin last week warned that the war in Ukraine had taken on “a global character” after the U.K., the United States and France authorized Ukraine to use long-range missiles to strike targets deep inside Russia.
That means Moscow is now ready to cause “unprovoked attacks against our critical national infrastructure,” McFadden will warn, including power grids, which “can turn the lights off for millions of people.”
Russian state-aligned groups including an “unofficial army of cybercriminals and hacktivists” have stepped up their attacks in the past year, according to the senior minister. Those groups have taken responsibility for “at least nine separate cyberattacks” against NATO countries in the past year alone, McFadden will say.
The U.K. and its Western partners are working hard to prevent the attacks, he is expected to say. “Be in no doubt: the United Kingdom and others in this room are watching Russia. We know exactly what they are doing.”
