Expert: Russia Launched Cyber Warfare Against UK With ‘Dirty Tricks’

In response to an attack on Syria, Russia has launched a cyberwar against the United Kingdom. This “dirty trick” campaign will be against the United States as well, and Boris Johnson, the UK’s Foreign Secretary says retaliation plans against Russia should be made now.

According to The Telegraph UK, Whitehall sources on Sunday night confirmed a Pentagon analysis that showed a 20-fold increase in Russian-sourced “disinformation” being spread online since the cruise missile attacks on Syria in the early hours of Saturday. This ramped up the fears that it could be a precursor to a campaign of cyber attacks by the Kremlin, and the Foreign Secretary said Britain must take “every possible precaution” to guard against it.

The attack on Syria by Western powers has put officials in the UK on edge.  They now feel that Russia will retaliate with a cyber attack against UK hospitals and other services including air traffic control, and one expert believes such an attack is imminent.  Counter-terrorism expert Michael Clarke, who specializes in defense studies, has urged the public to be ready for “cyber warfare” within the next two or three weeks.

“I suspect Russia will choose not to respond in military terms. But cyber warfare is highly likely,” said Clarke.  “It will be an attack on national infrastructure, not just upsetting city firms, but getting inside the transport system, or the health system, or air traffic control. It could affect everyone.”

The UK, US, and France launched 105 missiles at suspected chemical weapons sites in three strikes in Damascus and near Homs on Saturday, and Russian President Putin warned that the US-led strike against Syria would result in “consequences” against the Allied forces, without stating what they would be.

Speaking on the BBC’s Andrew Marr Show on Sunday, the UK foreign secretary said relations between both countries (the UK and Russia) had severely declined in the wake of the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal, and Saturday’s missile air strikes in Damascus and Homs.  Johnson also stressed the “limits” of the intervention were to stop an apparent erosion of the “taboo” of chemical weapons. “The rest of the Syrian war must proceed as it will,” he said, adding that the “primary purpose is to say no to the use of barbaric chemical weapons.” Johnson added that he did not know how Syrian President Bashar al-Assad would respond, saying that if there was a repeat chemical attack, “clearly, with allies, we would study what the options were.”The NHS has proven to be a weak target for cyber attacks in the past.  With an already failing socialist healthcare system, any cyber warfare could be fatal for the UK’s hospitals which are on life support now. 

Goodbye Royal Marines

Authored by Matthew Jamison via The Strategic Culture Foundation,

Over the course of the summer there was great fanfare and much to do from the British Secretary of State, Sir Michael Fallon MP, regarding the "completion" of two new British aircraft carriers called HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales.

Fallon, a thoroughly odious English Tory and old Cold War warrior, got punch drunk and completely giddy with the unveiling of the new aircraft carriers. Fallon got so excited he started spouting the most ridiculous anti-Russian nonsense such as this contrasting the Royal Navy’s new 65,000-ton carrier with what he called the “dilapidated” Russian carrier Admiral Kuznetsov. Fallon went on in wild Cold War terminology to invoke the spectre of what he erroneously and egregiously called "Russian aggression" and absurdly claimed that the mighty Russian Federation was some how "jealous" of Britain"s two new aircraft carriers. Quite frankly, there is not much to be jealous about when one scratches beneath the Tory English anti- Russian surface.

As is so often the case with the English, in particular their most offensive incarnation in the form of the Tory Party, what the English say and what the reality of the situation is, the hard cold truth, are two very different matters that rarely, if ever, gel together. Fallon quoted the former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher [who actually had tremendous respect and admiration for and a very good working relationship with the last General Secretary of the Soviet Union Mikhail Gorbachev] in trying to whip up stupid and offensive anti-Russian Cold War sentiment. Well, I am reminded of another one of Mrs Thatcher"s great quotations which I am fond of throwing back in ugly English Tory faces: "Such is presentation......how different from reality."

Fallon would not countenance any criticism of the new aircraft carriers, their cost, their Ministry of Defence project management, their sea readiness, their utility, and a whole host of other salient issues which deserved scrutiny by snapping that critics should "shut up." I"m sorry Fallon but the last time I checked the UK was supposedly a free liberal democracy with intellectual freedom and freedom of speech. Not some Gestapo State as your colleague Mrs May has attempted to create.

So let us examine closely how brilliant and what a great investment these two new British aircraft carriers are. Both HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales have roughly cost the hard pressed, almost bankrupt UK taxpayer a combined 6 Billion Pounds. At the official launch of HMS Queen Elizabeth back in the summer Fallon boasted: 

"But Queen Elizabeth, the biggest and the greatest warship this country has ever built, will go on now from these trials to defend our country, to safeguard our sea lanes, to work with our allies and partners to keep the peace, and to save lives across all seven seas."

When pressed on what he would say to the "armchair critics", Fallon beat his meagre chest and said

"They should come and see this wonderful flagship of the Royal Navy, which will help keep this country safe for 50 years to come."

Not to leave any hostages to fortune and most certainly not to be modest Fallon went on:

 "This is a great day for Britain. There are only three other countries in the world building aircraft carriers - and we are building two."

Let us blow away the Fallon/Tory/English spin and Rule Britannia hyperbole and examine the truth.

While on a tour of the Royal Navy’s mighty new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, an intrepid journalist noticed that it is fitted with the exact same software that was hit by a massive cyber-attack only a few months ago. HMS Queen Elizabeth is the most expensive aircraft carrier ever to be built for the Royal Navy at over 3 Billion Pounds but it is running on the same IT software system used by the NHS that were targeted by cyber hackers earlier this year. Also HMS Queen Elizabeth is designed to house 36 fast jets. None of which have yet been built. What is the point of an aircraft carrier if there are no aircraft to land on it? As Jeremy Clarkson writing in The Sun put it: "Apparently, three of the Anglo-American F-35s will be delivered to the Navy in 2020, then six more the following year. Quite what the crew is supposed to do to defend itself in the meantime is unclear. Use rude gestures, perhaps?"

And there is the small matter about the usual serial incompetence of the utterly corrupt and incompetent UK Ministry of Defence and its budget planning and project planning when it came to the building and budgeting for HMS Queen Elizabeth and HMS Prince of Wales. The Ministry of Defence as usual can not organise a tea party in China. Thanks to these two new aircraft carriers there is now a massive 30 Billion Pound black hole in the UK Ministry of Defence"s budget. Several senior Ministry of Defence officials linked to UK defence procurement have in recent weeks resigned while the Ministry of Defence has now had to engage in a behind the scenes, classic Whitehall cover up cost cutting exercise.

The sacrificial lamb for plugging this massive financial black hole so Britain can have two utterly useless, good for nothing, football stadium aircraft carriers without any aircraft will be the Royal Marines and their beach landing ships HMS Albion and HMS Bulwark. 

Churchill would be turning in his grave if he knew that Britain was sacrificing her ability to "fight them on the beaches" so Michael Fallon can swan around spouting rubbish about how Russia is "jealous" of these aircraft carriers and more anti-Russian garbage about how: "the resurgence of Russian aggression abroad...[is] undermining democracy wherever it can” and how these aircraft carriers represent "90% of it - British - 17 million parts. This ship is a floating showcase for British industry, British talent, British skills and British brainpower."

Fallon is not the only one spouting absolute lies and anti-Russian rubbish about these aircraft carriers. Sadly, a very weak naive former colleague of mine from the virulently anti-Russian Henry Jackson Society has been getting into Twitter spat after Twitter spat against RT defending these British aircraft carrier pieces of garbage. When will the anti-Russian propaganda of Fallon and James Rogers of the Henry Jackson Society stop. If it were not for the superior strength, grit, determination, continuous effort and heroic courage of the Russian people exemplified most vividly during the Battle of Stalingrad the simple fact is the UK would be the smallest province in the Nazi Third Reich now. But then Rogers is not an academically professionally trained historian. Perhaps some people need to go back to university and do a history degree.

Hospitals Across England Go Dark After Massive "Cyber-Attack"; Hackers Demand Ransom

Hosptials across the UK have been hit by what appears to be a major, nationwide cyber-attack, resulting in the loss of phonelines and computers, with many hospitals going "dark" and some diverting all but emergency patients elsewhere. At some hospitals patients are being told not to come to A&E with all non-urgent operations cancelled, the BBC reports.

The UK National Health Service said: “We’re aware that a number of trusts that have reported potential issues to the CareCERT team. We believe it to be ransomware.” It added that trusts and hospitals in London, Blackburn, Nottingham, Cumbria and Hertfordshire have been affected and are reporting IT failures, in some cases meaning there is no way of operating phones or computers.

At Lister Hospital in Stevenage, the telephone and computer system has been fully disabled in an attempt to fend off the attack.

NHS England says it is aware of the issue and is looking into it.

According to the Telegraph, doctors across the country have seen this message - what appears to be ransomware - flash up on their screens. The notification demands that $300 worth of bitcoin be sent to a specific address to unlock the infected computer.

One source told Health Service Journal that  multiple trusts had been affected by a suspected malware attack around 1.30pm. They said trusts had their computer systems almost entirely shut down.

East and North Hertfordshire NHS trust said in a statement: “Today the trust has experienced a major IT problem, believed to be caused by a cyber attack.

“The trust is postponing all non-urgent activity for today and is asking people not to come to A&E - please ring NHS111 for urgent medical advice or 999 if it is a life-threatening emergency.

“To ensure that all back-up processes and procedures were put in place quickly, the trust declared a major internal incident to make sure that patients already in the trust’s hospitals continued to receive the care they need.”Health officials are understood to have declared a major incident and ordered a meeting of national resilience teams.

NHS Digital said: “We’re aware that a number of trusts that have reported potential issues to the CareCERT team. We believe it to be ransomware.”

Routine appointments are being cancelled at Barts and other hospitals. Ambulances diverted. Major incidents being declared.

— Shaun Lintern (@ShaunLintern) May 12, 2017

There are reports that trusts affected include East and North Hertfordshire, North Cumbria, Morecambe Bay hospitals, Blackpool, and Barts Health in London. A number of GP surgeries also say they are also unable to use their systems.

IT specialists are working to resolve the problem as quickly as possible, a statement from the trust says. A GP from a surgery in York said: "We received a call from York CCG [Clinical Commissioning Group] around an hour ago telling us to switch off all of our computers immediately. "We have since remained open, and are dealing with things that can be dealt with in the meanwhile."

Services affected are thought to include picture archiving communication systems for x-ray images, pathology test results, phone and bleep systems and patient administration systems. The source added: “This will mean delays and a focus on the sickest patients. I’ve seen it once before and we relied on local trusts supporting each other. If truly widespread then that’ll not be an option.”

Most Government Workers Could Be Replaced By Robots, New Study Finds

Submitted by Emily Zanotti via HeatSt.com,

A study by a British think tank, Reform, says that 90% of British civil service workers have jobs so pointless, they could easily be replaced by robots, saving the government around $8 billion per year.

The study, published this week, says that robots are “more efficient” at collecting data, processing paperwork, and doing the routine tasks that now fall to low-level government employees. Even nurses and doctors, who are government employees in the UK, could be relieved of some duties by mechanical assistants.

There are “few complex roles” in civil service, it seems, that require a human being to handle.

“Twenty percent of public-sector workers hold strategic, ‘cognitive’ roles,” Reform’s press release on the study says. “They will use data analytics to identify patterns—improving decision-making and allocating workers most efficiently.

“The NHS, for example, can focus on the highest risk patients, reducing unnecessary hospital admissions. UK police and other emergency services are already using data to predict areas of greatest risk from burglary and fire.”

The problem, Reform says, is that public sector employee unions have bloated the civil service ranks, forcing government agencies to keep on older employees, and mandating hiring quotas for new ones. The organizational chart looks like a circuit board—and there’s no incentive to streamline anything.

Unfortunately for civil service workers, it seems the study is just the latest in a series of research  that won’t save their jobs. Oxford University and financial services provider Deloitte, both of whom comissioned their own studies concur with Reform‘s conclusions. The Oxford University study said that more than 850,000 public sector jobs could fall to robots over the course of the next decade.

Reform suggests that government employees should probably look into opportunities presented by the “sharing economy,” like driving for Uber – at least until robots replace those, too.