British Intelligence: 100 Countries Possess Cyberattack Technologies for Infrastructure
British intelligence, specifically the NCSC, believes that around 100 countries possess cyberattack technologies. These technologies, including spyware, could breach British infrastructure and networks. The number of nationally significant cyberattacks in the UK has doubled in a year, primarily from nation-states.
British intelligence believes that over half of the world's nations have acquired technologies capable of breaching British infrastructure, corporate networks, and private networks. This information was reported by Politico, citing the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
NCSC, which is part of the GCHQ intelligence agency, estimates that approximately 100 countries worldwide now possess software for cyber interference. The market for commercial hacking technologies, often referred to as spyware, has rapidly expanded over the past two decades. Products like Pegasus from NSO and Predator from Intellexa have previously been used to target journalists and political dissidents globally.
In recent years, the range of targets for spyware has broadened, with bankers and wealthy company executives increasingly falling victim to attacks. In the UK, the number of cyberattacks of national significance has doubled within a year. The majority of these incidents are now linked to nation-state actors rather than criminal groups.
British experts also note that countries such as China possess an «impressive level of sophistication» in carrying out cyberattacks against other nations.