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UK Cyber Chief Warns of State-Backed Attacks and Issues Guidance on China-Linked Device Networks

Ministers push AI firms to build faster defenses in response to four serious cases a week.

Overview

  • Richard Horne, speaking at the CYBERUK conference on Wednesday, said the NCSC handles about four nationally significant incidents a week and most now trace to China, Russia or Iran.
  • The government urged businesses to sign a Cyber Resilience Pledge and announced £90 million over three years to develop AI-powered defenses and help smaller firms.
  • New guidance from the NCSC and 15 international partners warns that China-linked actors hide attacks by routing traffic through networks of home routers and smart devices to keep access and avoid detection.
  • Officials said Russian groups are exporting tactics honed in the Ukraine war to Europe, with recent operations targeting energy and water systems in Poland, Sweden, Denmark and Norway.
  • Horne warned that frontier AI models such as Anthropic’s Mythos can rapidly find software flaws, which pushes organisations to shift from prevention-only setups to layered resilience so they can keep operating after a breach.