Column: Talking Politics with Holly Lynch MP - We all want to think this won’t catch up with us here in Calderdale
It was a historic gathering of world leaders with Turkey lifting its objections to Sweden’s assession making them the 32nd member. However as we passed 500 days since Putin’s abhorrent invasion, expectations were high as we asked what more can we do to support brave Ukrainians to victory? Whilst Ukraine was disappointed that they were not offered membership, the alliance made clear the commitment to Ukraine becoming a member, working together on a new package of support which it hoped would allow Ukraine to drive Russia out, paving the way to full membership. The war in Ukraine has seen hybrid warfare seamlessly deployed by the Russians putting cyber warfare on the agenda in Vilnius in a way which could not possibly have been foreseen when Attlee’s Labour Government first established the alliance in 1949. Cyber-attacks against critical infrastructure would coincide with missile strikes or troop movements on the ground, whilst disinformation about such conduct is simultaneously pumped out on social media. The cyber operations of hostile state actors and those cyber criminals and hacktivists aligned to them, as well as those motivated purely by money, are similarly testing the UK’s resilience like never before. Alongside our troops and weapons, the UK makes its National Cyber Force available to NATO as part of our contribution which allows us to have both defensive and offensive cyber capabilities ready to be deployed when needed. We all want to think this won’t catch up with us here in Calderdale, however our public service providers are having to dedicate more resources to protecting the information they hold. Gloucester City Council is the latest local authority to confirm that Russian hackers were behind a ‘sophisticated cyber-attack’ on them. Microsoft has recently indicated that hospitals remains in the top-five sectors targeted by morally vacuous operators. This will continue to be a challenge for all of us, but not one we face alone. Both in my capacity as a Shadow Minister, and a local MP, working to ensure young people are not drowning in mis and disinformation online, protecting the critical services we rely on from online attacks and working with international partners like NATO to tackle the problem at source, is work I hope to continue into Government.