British spies are helping to protect the upcoming American election from Russian meddling, says US Navy's cyber chief
British spies are helping to protect the American election from Russian meddling, it emerged yesterday.
Ross Myers, who is the US Navy's cyber chief, said Moscow was doing all it could to interfere in the vote next month.
'The No 1 mission right now is election security,' he said. 'I know we've worked with the Brits in their election, they are helping with our election as well.
'This isn't the first year that the Russians have tried to influence and they are pulling out more stops, they are pulling out more effort as they absolutely want to influence.
Christopher Wray , who is director of the FBI, warned last month that Russia was interfering in the presidential elections with a 'steady drumbeat' of misinformation
'But we were successful in 2018, we were a little bit surprised in 2016. It's no surprise that the Russians have ulterior motives.'
The vice admiral was speaking at the Atlantic Future Forum, a two-day virtual conference held on board the HMS Queen Elizabeth aircraft carrier.
Christopher Wray, who is director of the FBI, warned last month that Russia was interfering in the presidential elections with a 'steady drumbeat' of misinformation.
He said the effort was aimed at damaging Democrat Joe Biden and undermining confidence in the electoral process.
Washington has announced criminal charges against six Russians accused of carrying out cyber-attacks, including an attempt to hack into Britain's Porton Down military research facility. And the UK Government revealed this week that it had uncovered a Russian plot to sabotage the Olympics.
Dr Deborah Petterson, deputy director of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, said the pandemic had forced spy agencies to turn to new techniques.
The centre is also developing an early-warning system so that 'indicators of compromise' can be sent to government bodies, companies and members of the public.
She said members of the public had reported three million scam emails, enabling the NCSC to take down tens of thousands of sites that had escaped investigation.
'Day-to-day defence of the homeland is done by commercial enterprises, our energy companies, our transport companies', she added.
The impact of climate change was also raised as a future security concern at the conference.
Lord Sedwill, the former head of the civil service, said he expected a major 'shock' in the next 30 years related to global warming.
He warned that even if carbon emissions fall, temperatures will rise and the weather will become more volatile.
Lord Sedwill said this in turn could lead to 'migration flows' from sub-saharan Africa toward Europe.
He also warned that the trend to greater automation, such as drones and robots, would lead to fewer white-collar jobs.