UK warns public to prep for cyber-attacks in resilience overhaul
The UK is launching a public awareness campaign and overhauling its classified crisis plans for the first time since 2004, signalling a fundamental shift in European threat preparedness from geopolitical energy shocks to digital and climate-driven disruptions.
The UK government is preparing to instruct citizens on how to cope with food and water shortages caused by cyber-attacks or extreme weather. Cabinet Office Minister Darren Jones told Parliament that a national awareness campaign will launch later this year, accompanied by the largest domestic defence exercise in several decades.
Next year, the government will run Operation Albiston Shadow, a multi-day drill testing the country's response to hybrid attacks. Ministers are also updating the UK's classified crisis plans, known as "war books", for the first time since 2004.
The preparations follow a significant update to the national risk register, which now lists 95 acute threats. Seven new risks were added, including the danger of a cyber-attack on water infrastructure and "digital resilience failure" akin to the CrowdStrike outage that crippled more than eight million computers.
Notably, the threat of disruption to Russian gas supplies has been removed, reflecting that the UK has reduced its reliance on Russian gas. For European businesses and investors, this pivot underscores a broader continental transition where the primary risks to economic stability are shifting away from traditional energy blockades toward digital vulnerabilities.
When a major economy tells its population to prepare for potential disruptions to basic services, it highlights the fragility of modern digital supply chains. The CrowdStrike incident demonstrated how a single software flaw can paralyse global commerce, forcing companies across Europe to treat digital resilience as a core operational requirement rather than a niche IT concern.
Jones highlighted the accelerating nature of these modern threats, pointing to record-breaking temperatures in May and June. He also noted the rapid development of artificial intelligence, which he said "offers new ways for criminals to carry out cyber-attacks against us, as well as offering huge opportunities for our economy and security."
The upcoming public campaign will advise citizens on how to handle emergencies that disrupt access to power, water, mobile signals and local food supplies. "The government will do all it can and we are well prepared," Jones said, "but we can all play our part to keep ourselves and our loved ones safe."
