HMS Queen Elizabeth could be cyber vulnerable

Reports have claimed that HMS Queen Elizabeth, which recently left the Rosyth dockyard, could be vulnerable to a cyber attack. During a tour of the £3.5 billion new aircraft carrier, the outdated 2001 Windows XP operating system was spotted, the same system which left the NHS vulnerable to the WannaCry ransomware attack in May. The warnings follow fairly recent claims that the UK’s Trident missile system could be open to a cyber attack, although the Ministry of Defence maintains that submarines are isolated when at sea. The staff of HMS Queen Elizabeth have been equally quick to dispel the reports, arguing that the ship is well prepared to defend against such attacks and will have a team of cyber specialists on board. Mark Deller, commander air on the Queen Elizabeth, said: “The ship is well designed and there has been a very, very stringent procurement train that has ensured we are less susceptible to cyber than most. With regards to someone wanting to jam my radio frequencies, we will have an escort and destroyers around us that will ward off people who try and impact our output. That’s normal routine business at sea. “When you buy a ship, you don’t buy it today, you bought it 20 years ago. So what we put on the shelf and in the spec is probably what was good then. The reality is, we are always designed with spare capacity, so we will always have the ability to modify and upgrade. So whatever you see in the pictures, I think you will probably find we will be upgrading to whatever we want to have in due course. It might have already happened but I can’t tell you.” The ship is heading to the North Sea for maiden sea trials over the summer, while the second ship in the class, HMS Prince of Wales, is being fitted out in the Rosyth dock.