Cody Barrow is a former intelligence officer within the Pentagon and a founding director of the Department of Defense’s US Cyber Command (USCC), which has responsibility for protecting US military networks from cyber attacks.
Speaking to The i Paper, Barrow fears it will mean last year’s Russian cyber attacks on the NHS are much more likely to reoccur.
Since taking office in the White House, Trump has made scathing cuts to US cyber defences including axing vital contracts with private-sector partners and freezing recruitment
Both agencies work hand-in-glove with UK spies to defend against global cyber criminals and state sponsored attacks.
“I served with GCHQ counterparts in Afghanistan and the National Security Agency,” he said. “We were so closely embedded with each other that with some exceptions, we were effectively the same team.”
Barrow said the attacks showed how hackers were now using artificial intelligence to build convincing methods in order to dupe potential victims.
The former intelligence official the US National Security Agency (NSA) warned that Trump’s cuts have put the long tradition of trans-Atlantic intelligence cooperation in jeopardy. Barrow believes it poses a significant risk to British national security particularly where it threatens the Five Eye intelligence sharing alliance between US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand.
“If we are seeing programmes being cut on the US side that normally require Five Eyes support, then those same objectives need to be met a different way.
Donald Trump and Elon Musk have made sweeping cuts to US cyber operations (Photo: Jim Watson)
Trump and America first
In his first 100 days, Donald Trump launched repeated cuts to US cyber programmes.
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It formed part of sweeping cuts made by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (Doge).
In 2023, the UK worked in tandem with US agents to uncover attempts by Russian state cyber actors to interfere in UK politics and democratic processes.
Barrow says that within “weeks or months” UK agencies will be unclear on who from the US side they will need to be in touch with.
He added: “I’m actually not sure that we’ll go back to normal in four years. So you may as well used to the fact that at least for the next three and a half years, the fundamental policy of the United States government is America first, and they’re deadly serious, and trying to find a way around it is just going to lead to suffering.”
NSA director Gen Timothy Haugh was fired alongside his deputy and five senior aides at the National Security Council (Photo: Nathan Posner/Anadolu via Getty Images)Announcing a £16 million package to boost defence at home and abroad, McFadden said: “Cyber attacks are not a game. Not a clever exercise. They are serious organised crime. The purpose is to damage and extort.”
Over the past weeks, GCHQ has repeatedly reiterated the strength of cooperation with US agencies.
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.
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