The Ministry of Defence (MoD) is seeking to boost British cyber warfare capabilities through expanded recruitment and training programmes.

During a Written Question session in the UK Parliament on Monday, 3 February 2025, David Reed (Conservative – Exmouth and Exeter East) asked the Secretary of State for Defence, “what percentage of the Ministry of Defence’s demand for personnel with cyber warfare skills is being met; and how many personnel have been trained to date to meet this demand.”

Luke Pollard, Parliamentary Under-Secretary at the Ministry of Defence, responded with an emphasis on the government’s ongoing efforts to remedy a shortfall in skilled personnel:

“This Government inherited a retention and recruitment crisis with every part of our Armed Forces not meeting their recruitment targets. Cyber is a key area for the military and we are seeking to expand the number of people working in cyber. The Defence Secretary announced a new direct entry route into cyber last year and this will be rolled out this year.”

Though no specific percentages or exact figures were provided in Pollard’s response, the MoD has reiterated its commitment to strengthening the Armed Forces’ cyber warfare capacity.

The announcement of a “new direct entry route into cyber” is intended to streamline pathways for specialists, reflecting broader efforts to meet evolving defence and security challenges.

George Allison
George has a degree in Cyber Security from Glasgow Caledonian University and has a keen interest in naval and cyber security matters and has appeared on national radio and television to discuss current events. George is on Twitter at @geoallison

78 COMMENTS

  1. I’m really glad we are boosting our cyber warfare capabilities. This is a real self licking lollipop that can help the MOD look like it’s doing something to stay relevant while spending no money and probably doing nothing other than filling in endless requirement documents.

    • Totally agree, it’s seen as a cheap option to show the government are doing something, until it’s not cheap as hours of consultants aren’t that cheap after all

      • Yes, some how I can’t imagine anyone that’s passed through sandhurst being a coding wizz so no doubt this will involve some very expensive consultants.

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  2. Getting the neurodiverse people with an aptitude for this work into uniform (other than Star Wárs jump suits?) might be a bit of an ask. The technology giants and intelligence agencies seem, according to anecdotal accounts, able to manage this challenge. Liaison officers who aren’t easily offended by cyber dudes?

    • Neurodiverse is used to mean people such as those on the Autistic spectrum. It is not a term for intelligence even if leaver types like to abuse it as such. I am surprised by such a comment from you.

      • Hi Chris.
        I think you have misunderstood Barry’s meaning. I understand it is quite common that SOME people with “Special Needs” or SEND “Special Educational Needs and Disabilities” turn out, in their own closed autistic world, to be really gifted at certain things, including computer tech.
        I have such a chap at my own job, he has Asperger’s, and is brilliant with tech. My wife also works with such people.
        I took Barry’s comment to be suggesting that a life in uniform with its rigidity might not suit such “hacking geniuses” and that the Intelligence Agencies ( so SIS, SS, GCHQ ) have indeed recruited such for their skills, not their disability.

        So saying “It is not a term for intelligence even if leaver types like to abuse it as such. I am surprised by such a comment from you.” is really not warranted as Barry was clearly not questioning their intelligence at all.

        • I never thought he was questioning their intelligence.

          I thought he was disparaging bright people generally as ‘neurodiverse’. This is something I have come across quite a lot clashing with leaver/MAGA types.

          They want to feel better about being what they are by insulting brighter people and abuse the term ‘neurodiverse’ as a cover for this.

          Even in fields like IT the neurodiverse make up a small minority of the people working there.

          I found such a comment from Barry surprising.

          • Ok. I didn’t take his comment like that at all. I think with text it’s easy to misinterpret meaning.
            Cheers.

          • Rent free Chris. Get over it, it’s been 9 years since Brexit and Trump won in a democratic vote. Trump is the best president the US have ever had also. And not only was Brexit a good thing, we’re never going back. Next, we’re leaving the ECHR in 2029 when Reform win.

  3. Well seeing as we turned those capabilities on our own population to spread lies about COVID and vaccines while blocking people trying to dispute the narrative, ‘d rather we didn’t

    • Ah we we have a conspiracy fantasist in the house…

      You’re wrong, most of the people being blocked on social media for pushing Russian propaganda (eg 5G caused Corvid, the vaccines were a bio-weapon, etc), were blocked because ordinary science-literate citizens like myself spent time reporting you to the fact-checkers.
      It was hilarious watching you lot use a mIxTuRe of upper/lower case thinking this would confuse non-existant AI tools. Or you using misspellings or obvious metaphors for vaccines and jabs. It wasn’t 77 Brigade or AI that got you lot banned, it was the 90% of the public who aren’t certifiably paranoid bonkers.

      • Why is he for telling truth? 77’s own whistle blower confirmed it. The Army denied “we were used against the civilian population”. Always a pointer to a big fat porky. You need to wise up dude, and stop taking government propaganda as a fact. Funny how the “conspiracy theorists” are being proved right on a host of issues eh? Bet you have multiple jib jabs to your credit too lol

        • Not a single conspiracy theory has been proven on a single issue, let alone a “host”.
          You seriously think the 77 Brigade could police the social media of 70million people on their own? Not to mention the all the more important stuff they had to do. Even if 77 have subsumed the entire British Army they wouldn’t have had the manpower. The 77 were used against the Russian sources of antivaccine propaganda, which the conspiracy-theorists (or “useful idiots” in Russian parlance then happily regurgitated).
          For the ordinary foot-soldier conspiracy fantasists, your posts, pages, and groups, they were all infiltrated and reported by ordinary citizens like myself who banded together and organised against you.

          As they say, all it takes for evil to flourish is for good men to stand back and do nothing. We do in 1930’s Germany, what happens when conspiracy theorists gain political power…

          It’s amusing that you reject science as propaganda from the U.K. government, but believe the conspiracy theories put out by the Russian government… Certain cognitive dissonance there, along with the paranoia.

          • @truthseeker.
            Lol, I don’t call all of those conspiracies, but add Porton Down dropping bacteria spores on British Towns using the RAF and releasing Anthrax spores into the London Underground and Q Whitehall ( a government tunnel system/ Telephone exchange, see Craigs Court ) to test how far the trains carried them.😉

        • What issues are those then, eh? Name some conspiracy theories that have been proven true and not BS by losers in tinfoil hats.

          Flat Earth? Jewish space lasers? Alien abduction?

          • Well one for you? The “vaccines” yeah? See, they have killed people. Or do you live in a bubble like Mr Spock?

          • Conspiracy “theories” proven true:
            Bohemian Grove (rich and powerful including ex presidents worshipping the owl god ‘Moloch’ and burning effigies of children)
            Operation Northwoods (CIA planning false flag terrorist attacks, including hijacking planes, for public support to invade Cuba…reminds me of a certain date in 2001…?)
            Operation Mockingbird (major CIA propaganda operation involving large major news media outlets)
            CIA assassinations (they assassinated Mossadegh in Iran, Allende in Chile, and other leaders, making the killings appear like heart attacks, with the declassified HEART ATTACK GUN, cancers, suicides and car crashes)
            MK Ultra (just google this…insane. CIA human experimentation program to try to force confessions through brainwashing/psychological torture involving drugs, hypnosis, unwilling participants and dozens of universities and ‘front’ organisations)
            Tuskegee Syphilis Experiment (US lied to hundreds of men and gave them research chemicals and dangerous medical procedures under the guise of “treatment” – penicillin had been discovered as a cure years before yet they didn’t give it to them and let lots of men die so they could research the disease…can’t blame people for saying this about covid when they’ve done it before)
            Incapacitated President (Woodrow Wilson had a severe stroke and for 6 months was out of action, with his wife making executive decisions and essentially being the President, the public were not informed of this….Joe/Jill Biden?)
            Gulf of Tonkin Incident (The US completely lied about and fabricated a North Vietnamese attack on Navy ships to gain support that led to direct military involvement in Vietnam…reminds me of “WMDs”)
            Chemtrails (Cloud seeding is famous/public knowledge now and used by many countries including UAE which has caused floods in Dubai, also goes back to Operation Cumulus – 1952 Royal Air Force cloud seeding operation which some say caused the Lynmouth Flood killing 34..they experienced 250 times normal average rainfall for that time)
            PRISM/ECHELON (NSA/GCHQ/five eyes mass internet/communications data interception/collection)

            List goes on and on. And no I’m not a flat earther/holocaust denier/alien believer anything else you may try to call me.

        • John, I am sorry, but the government does not have enough time to waste trying to tell you whatever conspiracy theory is real/unreal. At present, the different apparatus has got over three times the amount of work for the people we have. What we do have is Russians claiming to be British or Americans spreading a wide range of propaganda and lies. Useful idiots then repeat them with sufficient gusto.

          People can make as many videos or SM posts on Moon landings, Flat Earth, Vaccines and the Great Replacement theory, it doesn’t matter. They are repeated in the echo chamber.

        • Joh which flag do you shag? This site is now officially containing some sad troll dip sticks who resort to abuse within moments. Grow up, just because other posters have a different of opinion, and post that opinion in a reasonable way in which you may find your own opinion challenged does not warrant stupid comments! Just confirms your lack of ability to debate and a lack of evidence to confirm your opinion.

  4. We could train some of the 30,000 Afghans in cyber bollox after we teach them to read and write.
    I’m sure we could blag a few thousand brand new Englishmen to take the kings shilling and play on computers for a living.
    🏴‍☠️❤️☮️

    • Very much so.
      I gave a detailed account the other day on its importance but it didn’t generate much conversation.
      I feel many are on my interested in:
      How many.
      Does it go bang.

        • The more that anyone connects to the internet, the more cyber comes into play. People forget how many things are actually connected. Water, sewage, electricity, communications, traffic lights, police, ambulance, fire, numerous cctv systems, alarm systems, solar power systems, the gps in your car or boat, aircraft systems, your local gp & hospital etc etc. You don’t actually have to hack into a system to disable it (something many don’t understand). If 5,000 people you don’t know knock at your door, how likely is it you would notice that one of them is someone you do know? Basically you stop answering the door fairly quickly. Called a denial of service attack.

          The number of internet connected devices using out of the box passwords is astounding. Automated systems will keep trying till they succeed. If your system doesn’t report failed attempts, how do you know if someone is trying to connect or if they succeeded? If you can see your cctv on your phone, so can someone else.

        • Sometimes they can. They can also hack things to shut down completely and irreversibly, which can be nearly as destructive. And our adversaries can do the same to us. Hence the importance of this area of work.

          • Offensive Cyber.
            The exact capabilities of which will be kept for a rainy day.
            The Israelis don’t seem to have much trouble negating Syrian air defence networks or shutting down Iranian systems.

        • They absolutely can do this.
          See: STUXNET. Israeli malware which caused huge damage to Iran’s nuclear program by infecting their computers and forcing the gas centrifuges which separated nuclear material to spin too fast and explode.

        • Hmm. Wait till someone’s remotely turns off your electricity or water. Someone once told me the quickest way to bring a city to its knees is to turn off the sewage pumps. Soon you will be up to your neck in shit (literally).

    • I don’t think we doubt how important it is we just doubt that the military are the right people to do this. These constant announcements of cyber capability coming from the MOD are just used to cover up cuts in hard capabilities.

      • Did anyone say ‘the military’ in the sense of people in Khaki? The requirement is for people who are suitably cleared, qualified and prepared to do the work. They would not typically be classed as ‘serving’ armed forces though, which is interesting given that the equivalent roles in the US would for legal reasons.

        • Yes the article specifically says the MoD which is the military, take note GCHQ who are better placed for this are not part of the MOD.

          • And yet, as I explained in an earlier post, the two sides work seamlessly together in Cyber, and the MoD,Military and GCHQ on the other work jointly in other areas too. Would you remove the military side then?

          • Yes, I would have it as a complete separate force structure like GCHQ that can work with the military but is not part of it and I would have it under the home office much like Mi5.

          • @ Jim. OK, sure.
            And what if the actual physical location of these assets is the same, and the teams are joint?
            I suppose you could still separate them, but it seems very inefficient if they share the same office space, or roon in the same building!?
            Would you have the set up you propose in other areas where the military directly support GCHQ tasking?

          • “Yes the article specifically says the MoD which is the military”

            Hi Jim. One needs to be careful with generalisations like that. The MoD have plenty of non uniformed, non pen pushing personnel!
            A fact I have tried to point out many times when some here want to disband the MoD En masse because Abbey Wood has supposedly screwed up a procurement.
            Just one example – DI – Defence Intelligence , the old Defence Intelligence Staff, comprise both tri service military and civilian staff. “MoD” does not mean just military.

        • @Ian. Yes, I believe there are both serving, Tri Service, uniformed personnel and MoD civil servant types involved in this area.

    • Unfortunately many here live in the past and expect the next war will be a rerun of WW2, with D Day style mass beach landings with battleship’s bombarding the shore. In short, they fall for the old maxim levelled at generals of preparing to fight the last war…

      There’s another maxim, that amateurs talk tactics while professionals talk about logistics. Well the Russians/ Chinese could wreck a country’s logistics and infrastructure through cyber attacks alone far more effectively than a squadron of bombers.
      But bombers are flashier, easier to get excited about..

      Fact is, we’re under a limited cyber attack all the time at the moment. With bad actors looking for vulnerabilities to exploit, either now, or some future large-scale attack.

      • But the Russians precisely haven’t done this to Ukraine, and has devolved into an artillery slugging match.

        I don’t doubt that cyber capability is important, but the sharp end of the spear needs to be there, too. Cyber is no substitute for the stuff that goes bang.

        • The Russians did. Or don’t you remember the NotPetya cyberattack in 2017, the collateral damage resulted in the world’s largest cyber attack that almost, for example, put Maersk out of business?

          Since 2014 when the original invasion of Ukraine was accompanied by a massive cyberattack, Ukraine had been fighting a relentless onslaught from Russia.

          • I wasn’t aware of that.

            But my point still stands. How much effect on the current war in Ukraine has cyber really had? Not a great deal, really.

            I’m not denying it has value, but not compared to the infantry, artillery, tanks, air power, etc and (most of all) logistics.

  5. The MOD needs to recruit Britain’s own hackers a untapped resource no matter how much certification you have in cyber security there’s always a hacker ahead of you .. Haha

    Regards Fifth Column

  6. To think that the Soviets went to great lengths to destroy the UK from within…and now we can do it without their help

  7. I work in Cyber for the NHS and i often see the vacancies advertised by the MOD and i have to say the salaries are so far below the private sector. I remember laughing with several colleagues about a head of Cyber for the MOD being around £40k. I can’t recruit an experienced cyber vulnerability analyst for less that.

      • It was a senior role, i wish i kept the screenshot. Cyber is incredibly competitive salaries need to reflect that which is why RRP is widely used within the private sector to help recruitment and retention. I can see those landing in Cyber specific roles doing 5 years and bailing for better paid jobs.

    • Tapping the reserves plus tech recruitment drives is an option. I’m reserve (work in big tech), and going this route has come up a few times in “water cooler chats.”

      We’ll be expensive to tap although far cheaper than using consultants (who tend be useless anyway). You need tech talent who are committed to actually maintaining/using the thing, rather than just shipping some crap over as long a timeframe as possible then heading off to the beach with what they were paid.

    • My wife’s friend works in MoD cyber security in Corsham and she’s in crap pay – she says around £23K plus £9K bonus – although they’re losing their bonuses from this year.

      I’ve read the average cyber security salary is around £54K. Tempted to retrain!

  8. Yup it is important, but sadly like the rest of “defence” of the UK it is low on the list of priorities. Government will do nothing but blow fairy dust until something major happens. I almost get the feeling we need a war, God forbid, to wake these idiots up. And I prefer stuff that goes bang.

  9. I’m currently studying Cyber-security in OpenUniversity and was looking at getting into the industry asap. This is great news for the nation and me! 😀

    • OpenUniversity won’t get you a job I’m afraid mate. Get certificates.
      CompTIA Sec+/PenTest+, CyberMillion, Certified Information Systems Security Professional (CISSP), Certified Ethical Hacker etc.

  10. I scan the NHS all the time there networks are shocking for vulnerabilities but hey it’s the past governments that haven’t invested

    • This government have had nearly 8 months. Can’t keep using the “past governments” excuse!
      Look what Trump’s got done in 2 weeks. Phenomenal work.

  11. No matter what government is in power they are all corrupt that is why I have never voted in my life there is no worthy political party sad truth and the economy is collapsing a slow death .. all cyber security certification is useless my advice to the guy on the open university course is target a isp a d hack them that’s the old school way because most cyber security certification is toilet paper believe me ethical hacking crap sounds cool but there are no famous cyber security people but there are famous hackers ie Kevin mitnick and I would just like to add Hemingway’s fifth column not Russian fifth column stands for resistance when the war begins you will come to learn this .. live free

  12. Does make you laugh though all the money gone in to cyber security and what to show for it GCHQ cloudflare servers in the USA … Terrible must be the special relationship we have with the USA … Not sure if they have any based in the UK hahaha the benefits system the government digital services are still on old systems with vulnerabilities and most servers are un patched … Russia could push us over but I suppose there’s so much Russian money going through London it wouldn’t pay to push us over haha

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