Cyber insecurity is a reality of life in the digital age. We all worry about being hacked, about losing personal or corporate secrets to online bandits. But what happens when nations do it? Is that war?

Marcus Willett CB OBE, has extensive experience of advising governments and companies on cyber, in the UK and internationally. In a 33-year career at the UK’s Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) Marcus rose to become the deputy head of the organisation. He was GCHQ’s first Director Cyber and has led several major UK government cyber initiatives. He has also held posts across the wider UK intelligence and security community. Since leaving government service in 2018, Marcus has been the senior cyber adviser to the International Institute for Strategic Studies, a world-leading authority on global security, political risk and military conflict. Marcus also advises the International Committee of the Red Cross and a range of companies in the UK and elsewhere, mostly on cyber security.

 

---

Cyber insecurity is a reality of life in the digital age. We all worry about being hacked, about losing personal or corporate secrets to online bandits. But what happens when nations do it? Is that war?

If a government uses digital tools to disrupt another state’s power grid or destroy nuclear research facilities, are those acts of war? What if a government allows a digital raid on another country’s corporations or sensitive personal data? Who makes the rules of cyber warfare? Which countries are already cyber powers?

Marcus Willet has spent decades thinking about such questions at the UK Government Communications Headquarters, his country’s signals intelligence and cybersecurity agency, and more recently at London’s International Institute for Strategic Studies. Listen as he discusses the risks and challenges facing us in the digital age, on this week’s episode of the New Thinking for a New World podcast .

Let us know what you think and comment below.

Click on the button to listen to the episode or find us on a podcast platform of your choice, (Apple podcast, Spotify, Acast, Stitcher, Libsyn, YouTube, etc).