(Reuters) – The head of Britain’s spy agency, GCHQ, said on Friday that Russia had failed to make progress in cyberspace against Ukraine, nearly six months after it invaded the country.
In an opinion piece for The Economist, Jeremy Fleming, chief of intelligence, wrote that both countries are using their cyber capabilities in the war in Ukraine.
“So far, President Putin has comprehensively lost the information war in Ukraine and in the West. And while this is cause for celebration, we should not underestimate the impact of Russian disinformation elsewhere in the world,” Fleming wrote.
“Just as with its invasion of Earth, Russia’s initial online plans seem to have failed. The country’s use of offensive cyber tools was irresponsible and indiscriminate.”
Fleming said that Russia deployed the WhisperGate malicious program to destroy and discredit Ukrainian government systems.
He also said that Russia has used the same evidence before on Syria and the Balkans, and said online disinformation is a key part of Russia’s strategy. However, GCHQ was able to intercept and issue warnings in a timely manner, he said.
Without going into too much detail, Fleming said the UK’s national cyber force could strike back at Russia by deploying a British military unit using offensive cyber tools.
(Reporting by Rachna Dhanrajani in Bengaluru; Editing by Leslie Adler)
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