UK NCSC Chief Says State Actors Believed Behind 75% of Critical Infrastructure Attacks

Summary

NCSC chief Richard Horne said the agency handled over 200 incidents affecting UK critical infrastructure in the year to May, about 75% believed linked to state actors. He warned of adversary footholds and potential AI-assisted exploitation by 2028.

Key points

The NCSC handled more than 200 incidents affecting UK critical infrastructure and its supporting ecosystem in the year to May.
About 75% of those incidents were believed to involve state actors, according to Richard Horne.
Horne said the NCSC regularly finds and stops breaches before their intent becomes clear, and warned that adversaries are prepositioning in critical infrastructure.
He cited Volt Typhoon, a campaign exposed against U.S. infrastructure, as an example of prepositioning for potential future disruption.
An NCSC assessment judged it highly likely that AI tools will be used by 2028 to exploit known weaknesses in aging critical infrastructure technology.
The UK government is moving forward with a Cyber Security and Resilience Bill intended to compel improvements by operators of essential services.

Article Details

Event Type: The NCSC chief warned that hostile states are responsible for about 75% of attacks affecting Britain’s critical national infrastructure, and that adversaries are prepositioning within infrastructure for potential future conflict.
Impact: The NCSC handled more than 200 incidents affecting critical infrastructure and its supporting ecosystem in the year to May; about 75% were believed to involve state actors. Richard Horne warned that established footholds could enable rapid exploitation and mass disruption during a conflict. The NCSC assessed it as highly likely that AI tools will be used by 2028 to exploit known weaknesses in aging critical-infrastructure technology.