back to article Cyberattack Blighty and we'll use 'military means' - UK gov

Any British response to a foreign state’s cyberattack would be proportionate, a Foreign Office official told The Register yesterday. On Monday, UK Prime Minister David Cameron told the London Conference on Cyberspace (LCC) that threats of electronic attacks were “a real and pressing concern” for the country. “This summer a …

COMMENTS

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  1. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Hack our Facebook account...

    ... and we'll fry your cities.

    Not a use of "proportionate" I've ever come across.

  2. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    British response to a foreign state’s cyberattack and

    “The UK has just revised its nuclear declaratory policy, that is a reflection of the way the world is changing,”

    So what are we are saying ....... take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure ........ bit harsh for a DDOS, but I guess it might work.

  3. Solomon Grundy

    What We Need

    is another Cold War.

    1. Ilgaz

      it never ended

      Cold war hasn't ended, it just became more indirect with additional actors.

  4. Jolyon Ralph
    Thumb Up

    Spear to Peer?

    Type your comment here. If you have one, which I don't

  5. Thomas 18
    Mushroom

    Retarded warmongering

    So now we are saying it's ok to go to war because someone exploit our crappy security. Worse yet there's nothing stopping us sending a couple of agents to a web cafe in Iran and having them hack one of our power plants. Instant mandate for war!

    Who needs weapons of mass destruction when we have hackers of mass distraction.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Just use an Iranian proxy and save the airfare.

  6. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Send Ann Widdecombe

    That's enough to scare them into submission.

    1. Old Painless
      Thumb Up

      ..or even better...

      ....LAUNCH Ann Widdecombe..."God bless her, and all who sail in her"

  7. JBH
    Facepalm

    So when will UK gov' be sending 'our boys' into China?

    No? Though not.

    1. Alex King

      Of course not

      We'll follow our traditional military tactic of only attacking a country if they're far smaller than us and if the pinnacle of their military technology is no more deadly than a sharpened mango...

  8. jbuk1
    Go

    Awesome. US says they'll use military force against cyber threats, we say we'll nuke the buggers. Go UK.

  9. Svantevid
    Mushroom

    So...

    ... if some USA hacker breaches UK computers, you'll torch the White House again?

  10. metaspective
    Stop

    There's a lot of it about...

    ...warmongering.

    Holiday in Iran anyone?

  11. Gordon Fecyk
    Mushroom

    Heard this before in 1999

    VMyths brought this up twelve years ago:

    http://www.vmyths.com/column/1/1999/10/5/

    "...the essence of war will remain the same. There will be casualties, carnage, and death; it will not be like a video game."

    Bring it on. I want to see burning PCs and smouldering mouse pads littering Blighty's landscape. :-p

  12. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Is this a cleverly constructed parody?

    Problem: People keep hacking us!

    Solution: Fire your sysadmins, use devices and operating systems with built-in protection against attacks, enforce acceptable terms of use policies.

    .gov Solution: HOW WE LEARNED TO STOP WORRYING AND USE THE BOMB.

  13. Dave 15

    Military means.... wow, so they're going to put some money into the forces?

    I mean, come on...

    No aircraft for our remaining aircraft carriers (the most recent refurbished one being chopped up in the middle east)... this means (as we should have learnt when Prince of Wales was sunk by the Japanese - that the whole surface fleet is useless, and because that means no support for the submerged fleet that also is useless.

    No ships to ensure the flow of supplies means no oil for the airforce so thats grounded as well (and anyhow theres not enough of it left to do more than a Buck house fly past).

    No ships or aircraft mean the army is of no use outside of the UK, even if we could persuade the Belgiums to keep us in guns and spare parts (we don't use our own make of course - this is Britain). Worse I suppose, we buy our army uniforms from China (so if we fall out with them I guess our soldiers invade using camoflage paint all over), our bullets from South Africa (well at least its on the way to China if you take the slow boat....

    Oh I love Cam morons empty threats - he's a gem.

  14. Jonathan Richards 1
    Unhappy

    Vulnerability

    > We have to stand ready to respond in kind, because we’re very vulnerable

    That's like two blokes with pointed sticks in a standoff: you stab me and I'll stab you.

    Then, somebody comes up with the concept of armour, in which offence is deterred (by reducing the chance of success) and nobody gets to bleed. Defences must be strengthened.

    Responding in kind, though? That would be reprisal cyber-attack. Traditional military response would be responding in a *different* kind.

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