UK minister warns ‘Wagner-like’ cyber groups threatening UK critical national infrastructure

Emerging Russia-aligned cyber groups similar to private military contractors Wagner pose a threat to the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI), UK Minister Oliver Dowden noted in a speech at the CyberUK conference in Belfast. Dowden noted that the government, in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Centre, plans to set cyber-resilience targets for critical sectors to meet within two years. Additionally, private sector companies involved in critical infrastructure will be subject to resilience regulations.

It remains unclear how these groups are similar to the Wagner Group of mercenaries. The hacking groups, it was noted, are motivated by ideology rather than finances, are not directly controlled by the Kremlin and are, therefore, less likely to exercise the same restraint as nation state hackers.