General Sir Patrick Sanders, head of the United Kingdom's Strategic Command, has revealed that the country's Prime Minister Boris Johnson told him to ensure that that Britain is a “leading, full-spectrum cyber power” capable of both defending against hacking attacks and conducting them, The Guardian reports.
According to the newspaper, even though the British military "claims to have had an offensive cyber capability for a decade", this fact has apparently been rarely "publicly discussed".
As Gen. Sanders explained, the UK military worked "in partnership with GCHQ" to deliver "offensive cyber capabilities" which, in theory, could "degrade, disrupt and even destroy critical capabilities and infrastructure of those who would do us harm, ranging from strategic to tactical targets".
He also mentioned that the UK military was "targeted by an average of 60 attacks that require human engagement or intervention", as the newspaper put it, with the general adding that "if this was an air war, this would be the Blitz".