This week The i Paper revealed the US President imposed funding cuts on US Cyber Command (USCC) – a crown jewel in the Pentagon’s ability to counter Russian cyber threats. The move is only one in a series of cuts by the Trump administration which have diluted America’s cyber defences.
There has been growing alarm at how foreign powers or their criminal proxies have been targeting elections in Britain as well as politicians across all parties in order to interfere with democratic processes.
They warn that significant impact could be placed on the UK’s own ability to deter hostile state cyber attacks including election interference.
He said: “The UK’s partnership with the US goes beyond defensive and offensive cyber operations and intelligence-sharing. There are a number of key UK cyber policy and diplomatic initiatives which are likely under threat because of US cuts and policy shifts.
“These includes countering-election interference, policy work, and diplomatic initiatives to counter ransomware”
US President Donald Trump has launched a scathing sweep of cuts to US cyber defences in recent weeks (photo: Getty)He said: “Russia’s aggression poses a serious threat to our security, and the UK has worked extensively with our allies to respond. We are therefore following developments in the US very closely.
UK and US work to prevent election interference
From the Brexit referendum to national polls, election interference by hostile groups have become a growing matter of concern for Western intelligence agencies.
In 2023, the UK worked in tandem with a US govt agency that is part of Dept of Homeland Security called the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (Cisa) to uncover sustained attempts to interfere in UK politics and democratic processes by Russian state cyber actors.
The operation exposed how a Russian cyber crime group, Star Blizzard, had been “almost certainly” a subordinate of Russian intelligence.
There have been a number of unverified claims of election interference in the 2016 Brexit referendum (Photo: Wiktor Szymanowicz/Future Publishing)At the time Paul Chichester, Director of Operations at the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), said: “Defending our democratic processes is an absolute priority for the NCSC and we condemn any attempt which seeks to interfere or undermine our values.
The case represents an example of the threat faced by western countries, and the need for rigid cyber security against them. But Cisa as been the main focus of Trump’s apparent resentment.
Since the start of his second term, Trump has cut more than $10 million in funding to two Cisa cybersecurity programs dedicated to election security and protecting government assets.
The 2020 presidential election spurred false claims of widespread fraud and a violent attack on the U.S. Capitol (Photo: Jose Luis Magana)Last month, the agency faced further cuts when it was forced to cancel contracts with more than a hundred cybersecurity experts, and there are fears that almost half of the agency’s 3,400 workforce could be at risk of termination.
The joint fight against Russian criminal gangs
Its not just election interference that British intelligence has partnered with US cyber agencies on. The Atlantic coalition has increasingly disrupted and targeted espionage and sabotage campaigns launched by state-backed cyber criminals.
The investigation revealed a Russian state campaign of malicious cyber activity targeting government and critical infrastructure organisations around the world.
The activity highlighted the coordinated approach between “junior active-duty GRU officers” and non-GRU cyber criminals, according to the NCSC.
Pete Hegseth reportedly ordered the USCC to pause operations against Russia (Photo: Saul Loeb/AFP)A UK security source said the intelligence relationship between the two countries is “based on mutual trust”, and so officials will be working hard to maintain operational standards behind the scenes.
“We have spent years building a coalition to call out cyber threats from Russia, China and Iran,” they said. “The UK will now need to operate closer with Europe as the US looks to dilute its cyber operations.”
He said: “It isn’t clear yet what the scale of cyber-related budget cuts and workforce reductions will be across the federal government. Without these crucial details, we can’t say for sure how much “normal business” will be affected by these cuts, including how collaboration with allies might be affected.
“This is inevitably going to unsettle allies, at least until it is clear what the “new normal” is going to look like.”
The US National Security Agency, Cisa and the NCSC were asked to comment.
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