UK Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab called for a wider coalition to respond to states complicit in "malicious cyber attacks", as he gave his keynote cybersecurity speech at the National Cyber Security Centre's (NCSC) CYBERUK conference on Wednesday.
Revealing the threats facing the West in cyberspace, Raab accused Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran of working to "sabotage, steal, and ransack the international system".
"Some of this activity is aimed at theft and extortion, but it all too often is simply focused on sabotage and disruption. It is worth saying these actors are the industrial scale vandals of the 21st century. But that doesn't mean it is random", Raab stressed.
Raab's concerns about cybersecurity in the West come as the biggest pipeline in the US, Colonial Pipeline, was targeted by a cyber attack, as confirmed by the FBI.The bureau said the pipeline was hit by a ransomware developed by the Russian hacking collective DarkSide.
Various US media outlets linked the attack to Russia, although President Joe Biden said there is no evidence to suggest that Russia is behind the attack.