Britain calls for food storage... in anticipation of cyber attacks

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The British government's new "Be Ready" website, launched on Thursday, called on British families to stock up on three liters of bottled water per person per day to drink, in addition to non-perishable food items such as canned meat, dried fruit and nuts.

Meanwhile, British Health Minister Wes Streeting said that citizens must treat national preparedness and the ability to withstand crises with the same seriousness with which national defense is viewed. He asked: Are we prepared for increasingly sophisticated cyber attacks targeting our companies? Are we prepared for the possibility of disruptions to essential supply chains caused by hostile states or terrorist groups? How would we respond if the payment systems at the local grocery store went down? These are examples of the daily challenges we may face, and it is right that we be prepared for them,” according to what the Telegraph newspaper reported.

Yesterday, 32 government services stopped working, while four other services became only partially available, while British government departments were working to address concerns related to cybersecurity, following a flaw discovered in the PHP programming language, which allows hackers to infiltrate data traffic between websites and databases. Which may enable them to reveal passwords, credit card data, and other sensitive information.

Vehicle inspection centers across Britain were also forced to use pen and paper to record the results of technical safety tests (MOT), after the electronic platform of the Driver and Vehicle Standards Agency was stopped.

Meanwhile, the National Cyber Security Center, part of the British intelligence agency GCHQ, has issued instructions to website owners to temporarily shut down their systems if they cannot address the problem immediately. Tan Dhesi, Chairman of the Defense Committee in the British House of Commons, said that the UK needs to “take strong action” to confront the increasing cyber risks associated with artificial intelligence. The Labor MP added in an interview with BBC Radio 5 Live: “It appears that artificial intelligence could be used with devastating effectiveness to carry out cyber attacks against everyone... "We have to be more careful than ever."

He also pointed out that Britain is the third country most targeted by cyber attacks.

The newspaper previously reported that Russia is using commercial fishing vessels to spy on British marine communications cables, which transmit about 95% of intercontinental communications data, while the British Internet system relies almost entirely on them to communicate with the outside world.

Britain also depends on a highly globalized food supply chain, as between 45% and 50% of its food needs are imported.

Last September, Britain's National Audit Office warned that disruptions to Britain's food supply were becoming "more likely and potentially more serious" as a result of extreme weather, cyber attacks and the spread of disease.