The UK government has announced an additional £16m in funding for Ukraine to protect its critical national infrastructure (CNI) from a Russian attack.
Number 10 announced yesterday that the funding will be in addition to the £6.35million contribution to the UK’s Ukraine Cyber Program (UCP) announced by the Foreign Secretary last year.
For more information on Russian cyberattacks, see Microsoft: Russia Launches Hundreds of Cyber Operations in Ukraine.
UCP is designed to provide public and private sector cybersecurity expertise to protect the Ukrainian CNI and critical public services from Russian cyberattacks.
“Russia’s horrific attacks on Ukraine are not limited to barbaric land aggression, but also nasty attempts to attack the cyber infrastructure that provides vital services to innocent Ukrainian citizens, from banking to energy supply. It is included,” said Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. statement.
“This funding is critical to thwarting such an onslaught, strengthening Ukraine’s cyber defenses, and enhancing the country’s ability to detect and neutralize malware targeting Ukraine.”
An additional £9m is expected from an unnamed ‘international ally’, bringing the total to £25m.
Sunak is expected this week to encourage the private sector to play a more active role through investments in war-torn Ukraine.
The UK is aligning its financial commitment to cyber expertise with funding more conventional military resources. The company has contributed £250m to the International Fund of Ukraine (IFU) package, which will be spent on air defense, including radar, guns and ammunition to protect Ukrainian cities from Russian bombs.
The UK recently delivered a highly prized long-range missile system, the Storm Shadow, to Kiev to enhance its counterattack capabilities. But Ukrainian military leaders may have paused the long-awaited counteroffensive that began days ago as they weighed their options, it turned out over the weekend.
No further information is available on exactly what cybersecurity assistance the UK will provide, but Ukraine has reportedly launched destructive malware, cyber espionage attacks, and information aimed at undermining public confidence in its leadership. It has been repeatedly attacked by war campaigns.
In an April 2022 update, Microsoft claimed that virtually all Russian state actors are committed to efforts targeting Ukraine.
