In June 2017, the Guardian pubished an article exploring some of the key themes of BASIC's cyber security report, Hacking UK Trident. It acknowledged some of Tridents' cyber vulnerabilities, as identified in the report and gauged the reaction of Des Browne, the former UK defence secretary:
Cyber warfare
Report: Hacking UK Trident: A Growing Threat
This paper reviews the growing potential for cyber-attack on the UK’s operational fleet of Vanguard-class submarines armed with nuclear-tipped Trident II D-5 ballistic missiles, and some of the implications for strategic stability.
Zero Days, Millions in damage: A scientist’s review of the RAND report Zero Days, thousands of nights.
A recent RAND report, released just two days after Wikileaks opened its Vault 7 that detailed the CIA’s entire stockpile of vulnerabilities and their suite of cyber tools (also referred as exploits), seeks to establish a protocol and the advantages of state intelligence agencies maintaining classified vulnerability stockpiles.
The Paradox of Technological Vulnerabilities: Anyone Can Use Them
The paradox of technological vulnerabilities: anyone can use them
The dangers of vulnerable nuclear forces
For a while during the Cold War, the nuclear standoff was almost comfortable. When the Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev was briefed on the destructive power of the hydrogen bomb, he told his son Sergei, he was so upset that he could not sleep for several nights. But then, he said, he realised that these weapons could never be used and he could sleep again.
A Primer on Trident’s Cyber Vulnerabilities
The second of BASIC’s 2016 Parliamentary Briefing series relating to the Trident debate is a primer on Trident’s cyber vulnerabilities. Cyber threats impact both critical civilian infrastructure and all military systems dependent upon digital control and communications.
Concerning SSBN Vulnerability - recent papers
Two BASIC papers published in recent months (The Inescapable Net: Unmanned Systems in Anti-Submarine Warfare and A Primer on Trident's Cyber Vulnerabilities), have asserted the UK’s strategic nuclear deterrent is in danger of becoming vulnerable in such a way that it can no longer be relied upon to fulfil its primary role.
‘Trident is Old Technology’: the Brave New World of Cyber Warfare
This article by the Guardian’s Julian Borger details emerging disruptive technologies and cyber warfare that “means a country can be brought to its knees with the click of a mouse.”