UK’s Defense Academy Hit by Cyberattack That Caused ‘Significant’ Damage

By Staff, Agencies

The UK's Defense Academy was hit by a cyberattack last year which caused “significant” damage, according to a retired high-ranking officer.

Air Marshal Edward Stringer said the attack was possibly launched by a hostile foreign state such as Russia or China.

Air Marshal Stringer told Sky News that the security breach was discovered in March 2021 and the Defense Academy, which teaches thousands of military personnel, diplomats and civil servants each year, was forced to rebuild its network, with the damage yet to be fully rectified months on.

AM Stringer said there were “costs to ... operational output” and “opportunity costs in what our staff could have been doing when they were having to repair this damage.”

“There are not bodies in the streets but there's still been some damage done,” he said, adding that the “unusual activity” was discovered by contractors working for outsourcing company Serco.

He said there were “external agents on our network who looked like they were there for what looked pretty quickly like nefarious reasons.”

The Defense Academy, based in Shrivenham, close to Swindon, offers courses to 28,000 people a year on themes including leadership, information warfare, cyber capabilities and international engagement.