LONDON, England - September 17, 2010 - Britain’s electrical system, financial networks and transport infrastructure could all be paralyzed by a solar flare or a nuclear attack, Liam Fox will warn next week
The Defence Secretary will next week attend a summit of scientists and security advisers who believe the infrastructure that underpins modern life in Western economies is potentially vulnerable to electromagnetic disruption.
Such disruptions, which can shut down electrical equipment and cripple orbiting satellites, can be triggered by man-made nuclear blasts or natural events on the surface of the sun.
Dr Fox will tell the conference he believes there is a growing threat, and he wants to address the “vulnerabilities” in Britain’s high-tech infrastructure.
“As the nature of our technology becomes more complex, so the threat becomes more widespread,” he will say.
“While we all benefit from the products of scientific advances so we also create vulnerabilities that can be exploited by our enemies. However advanced we become the chain of our security is only as strong as its weakest link.”
The Coalition’s Strategic Defence and Security Review is considering potential weaknesses in Britain’s defenses against high-tech attack or disruption.
Conventional military units, cyber warfare and other technology-driven capabilities are likely to get more money when the review is concluded.
Much of the Ministry of Defence’s planning focuses on the risk of a hostile state exploding a nuclear weapon in space, creating a sudden, intense burst of electromagnetic energy called a high altitude electro-magnetic pulse.
