Terrorists andcyber crimemain threatsfor Olympics

Jonathan Reed Political Editor

TERRORISTS and cyber criminals pose a double threat to the London Olympics in two years’ time, the Government has revealed as it prepares to unveil major cuts to defence spending.

Some terrorists investigated or convicted in the wake of the September 11 attacks in 2001 are already free again and could return to terrorist activities, according to the first National Security Strategy published yesterday.

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The Games will also be an “attractive target” for cyber criminals who could seek to hack into computer systems causing chaos to events, disrupting critical services and committing fraud.

Cyber crime – with the potential to wreak “devastating” damage such as bringing down air traffic control systems or hacking into power station systems – is now one of the four most serious risks facing the UK, along with terrorism, major incidents such as floods or a flu pandemic and an international military crisis which draws in the UK.

The strategy – which ranks the 15 most serious risks to national security for the first time – paves the way for the Government to make significant cuts to the Armed Forces today after lower priority was given to threats such as a conventional military attack on the UK or an attack on the Falklands.

Critics will claim the strategy is little more than a fig leaf for cuts, with warships, fighter jets, tanks, and thousands of troops facing the axe when the Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR) is published today despite Defence Secretary Liam Fox fighting hard against Treasury demands for bigger savings. The defence budget is expected to be chopped back by eight per cent over the next four years.

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Ministers will confirm today they are going ahead with two aircraft carriers which would cost more to cancel than to build – but the Queen Elizabeth will be mothballed or sold off just three years after coming into use in 2016 and will only be used by helicopters. The second, the Prince of Wales, will come into full use in 2020 housing a fleet of Joint Strike Fighter jets.

The Government will also announce it is proceeding with an order for seven Astute attack submarines, but aircraft carrier Ark Royal will be taken out of service.

In an “age of uncertainty” the National Security Strategy said al-Qaida is still the main threat from international terrorism, with the UK having to be ready for mass-casualty attacks like the London bombings as well as chemical, biological, nuclear or radiological attacks.

But there is also a mounting risk of attacks on the British mainland by dissident Irish republicans after a “significant increase” in incidents in Northern Ireland – up from 22 in 2009 to 37 so far this year – over the past year.

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There is a “serious and persistent” threat from Irish terrorists who aspire to launch attacks in Great Britain and the security situation is “unlikely to improve in the short term”, said the strategy.

David Cameron claimed the Government had inherited a “defence and security structure that is woefully unsuitable for the world we live in today” and warned the country faces “a complex array of threats from a myriad of sources”.

But the focus on the growing danger from a computer-based attack – from stealing people’s bank details to hacking into computer systems and bringing down entire networks or vital infrastructure – is a major feature of the strategy.

The head of Government Communications Headquarters, or GCHQ, Iain Lobban recently revealed that 1,000 malicious emails a month are already being targeted at Government computer networks, and the strategy talks of a “sustained cyber attack” on the state, companies and citizens from hostile states and criminals.

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“Attacks in cyberspace can have a potentially devastating real-world effect,” says the strategy. “Government, military, industrial and economic targets, including critical services, could feasibly by disrupted by a capable adversary.”

During the Beijing Olympics in 2008, there were 12 million cyber attacks a day prompting the warning that the London Games “will be an attractive target for criminals and others seeking to defraud and potentially disrupt”.

Comment: Page 10.

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