In the UK, the government warned that cyber attacks could disrupt public services, payment systems and food supply chains, and asked citizens to take precautions against possible crises.
"Get ready!", which was stated to be available on Thursday. In the government platform called , households were recommended to stock three liters of bottled drinking water per day for each individual and food products that can be stored for a long time, such as canned meat, dried fruits and nuts.
AS IMPORTANT AS DEFENSE
British Health Minister Wes Streeting said that preparedness and resilience to national crises should be taken as seriously as the country's defence.
According to The Telegraph newspaper, Streeting pointed out the possible effects of increasingly complex cyber threats on daily life and asked the following questions:
Are we ready for increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks targeting our companies? Are we prepared for the possibility that our essential supply chains may be disrupted by hostile states or terrorist organizations?
Streeting stated that even seemingly ordinary disruptions, such as payment systems being disabled in a local market, can have serious consequences, and emphasized that citizens should be prepared for such scenarios.
32 PUBLIC SERVICES ARE DISABLED
The warnings come as public bodies in the UK face serious cybersecurity concerns.
According to the news, 32 public services became completely unusable on Thursday, while four services could only be partially accessed.
It was stated that the outages coincided with concerns about a security vulnerability reportedly detected in the widely used PHP programming language.
It was claimed that the vulnerability in question could allow hackers to interfere with data traffic between websites and databases and access passwords, credit card information and other sensitive data.
However, no definitive technical findings were reported that the disruptions in public services were directly caused by this security vulnerability.
The disruptions also affected daily services. Vehicle inspection centers across the UK have been forced to record technical safety inspection (MOT) results of vehicles with paper and pencil after the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency's (DVSA) electronic system was disabled.
ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE SUPPORTED ATTACK
The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC), affiliated with the British electronic intelligence agency GCHQ, instructed website administrators who could not immediately resolve the security problem to temporarily shut down their systems.
House of Commons Defense Committee Chairman Tan Dhesi said that stronger measures should be taken against the risks posed by the use of artificial intelligence in cyber attacks.
Speaking to BBC Radio 5 Live, the Labor Party MP stated that artificial intelligence can be used effectively in cyber attacks that can have devastating consequences, and that we need to be more careful than ever.
Dhesi also claimed that the UK is the third country most targeted by cyber attacks in the world.
SUBMARINE CABLES ARE IN DANGER
The security risks facing the UK are not limited to the digital infrastructures of public institutions.
In a news previously published by The Telegraph, it was claimed that Russia was collecting intelligence about Britain's undersea communication cables using commercial fishing boats.
Undersea cables, which carry around 95 per cent of intercontinental communications data, play a critical role in the UK's global internet connection.
Damage to this infrastructure is considered among the risks that may cause widespread disruptions in international data communication and digital services.
ABOUT HALF OF THE FOOD SUPPLY
Another vulnerability of the UK is its dependence on global food supply chains.
The country meets approximately 45 to 50 percent of its food needs through imports. This raises concerns that disruptions in international transportation, logistics networks or digital supply systems could directly affect food supply.
In its assessment published in September, the UK National Audit Office (NAO) warned that the risk of serious disruptions in food supply in the country was increasing.
The agency had reported that future food supply disruptions are becoming more likely and could potentially lead to more severe consequences due to extreme weather events, cyber attacks and the spread of diseases.
The government's latest preparedness call shows that not only protecting digital systems but also maintaining access to basic needs during a possible crisis has become part of national security planning.
