PerspectiveWinning the Cyber War Is Not a Job the Army Can Do Alone

Published 7 August 2019

Britain has not been legally at war since 1945. Despite this, we have been in perpetual conflict since then and, apart from 1969, have lost soldiers on operations every single year. Today the sphere of that conflict now very much includes the online world where our adversaries – from Russian disinformation disseminators to IS’s terrorist cyber warriors – are a shadowy, but perpetual threat. In this increasingly antagonistic world, we must organize ourselves accordingly.

Britain has not been legally at war since 1945. Despite this, we have been in perpetual conflict since then and, apart from 1969, have lost soldiers on operations every single year. Today the sphere of that conflict now very much includes the online world where our adversaries – from Russian disinformation disseminators to IS’s terrorist cyber warriors – are a shadowy, but perpetual threat. In this increasingly antagonistic world, we must organize ourselves accordingly. Jonathan Shaw writes in the Telegraphthat the attempt to rebalance the Army’s capabiliteswith the formation of 6 Division, a new unit giving weight and emphasis to cyber skills, is vital to fighting an information war that has already been waged against us by our enemies for a number of years. However, there are still challenges for the government, and how it responds to these will be crucial.