Digital Front Lines

AS MILITARIES INCREASINGLY MOVE DATA TO THE CLOUD, HOW CAN GOVERNMENTS MAINTAIN THE CYBERSECURITY OF THEIR DEFENCE FORCES IN THE ERA OF DIGITISATION? SECURITY CORRESPONDENT DANIEL BARDSLEY REPORTS.

- Dr Emma Garrison-Alexander

Weaponry has come a long way since the first cannon were used as far back as the Song Dynasty in 12th century China.

Rather than being based around gunpowder and crude projectiles, today’s weapon systems are pushing the frontiers of electronic and computing sophistication.

With this complexity – and the automation and connectedness that accompanies it – comes risk, including cybersecurity vulnerabilities.

Any weapon system that depends on software could be targeted, and the potential significance of a successful hack can hardly be overstated: missions can fail and people can be killed.

The United States has overwhelmingly the biggest defense budget in the world at more than $600 billion (Dh2.20 trillion) a year, several times the officially declared expenditure of the second-placed country, China.

But being the biggest does not provide immunity to cyber vulnerabilities, as a 2018 United States Government

Accountability Office (GAO) report, Weapon Systems Cybersecurity: Department of Defense just beginning to grapple with the scale of vulnerabilities, makes abundantly clear.

“Although GAO and others have warned of cyber risks for decades until recently the Department of Defense did not prioritize weapon systems cybersecurity,” the report says.

Not mincing words, the report describes the department as having a “nascent understanding of how best to develop more cyber secure weapon systems”.

If the US faces such problems, it seems likely that many less well-funded militaries have them in at least equal measure.