By and large no, is there a potential threat of cyber criminals, scammers and other assorted cyber thieves entering and living in England, yes probably. It is inevitable that foreign entities want to attack us for information, control or to steal our money. Now cyber attacks are global and can come from anywhere and most often do.
So why would they come here and live amongst us?
It is so much easier to attack within, for example they could gain employment in the Government, our businesses, our institutions or other areas of potential gain for these lowlifes.
Why attack remotely when you can physically gain access which would be impossible if you’re not actually there. They will try every trick in the book to get into secure locations, access employees details, logons and passwords. They get to know the right people who can help them with their devious underhanded cyber crimes.
As I’ve mentioned in previous articles you are only as strong as your weakest link and they will look for that and exploit it. Again this can’t be done remotely they will need to be on the ground.
Social Networking
Not forgetting it isn’t just tapping on keyboards that expose potential threats, social networking is a common form of gaining information. Talking to people, persuading them to give out details without them even realising they’ve done it. A random example is what’s your bosses name again? can give you me his email I need to get in touch about bla bla bla. Now just a simple conversation has given him your bosses name and a verified email address that could well be secure under normal circumstances and more importantly communications to that email could well be trusted by the boss after all it’s secure isn’t it.
Now a potential foreign cyber criminal could contact him by name to his email address and try to hack his computer with malware for example with some dodgy link. Obviously bosses have greater access to the internal systems and may well easily have the ability to gain all sorts of secure information that would be invaluable to these lowlife cyber criminals. That is just one simple example of a social networking threat, there are many more.
Internal Threat
Or worse still giving them a job in cyber security or high level access so they don’t even have to break into the systems they’re in them already. Some foreign cyber criminal scumbags work for foreign cyber criminal organisations (collective scumbags) and may wait until they get the right promotion to get what they want. If the prize is big enough they’ll wait.
Foreigners To Fear
The greatest threats from foreign organisations these days come from the Chinese and the Russians this is well documented and well known. Yet the Labour government are looking to allow a huge Chinese Embassy to operate in the heart of London, they must be mad! Yes they are the biggest threat but there are many foreign cyber criminal organisations who want to screw us over and we allow them to live here and work here too.
Also see: Is Cyber Crime A Threat To Me?
Soft Touch
England is far too soft and far too open for its own good. Successive Governments have failed miserably at protecting our borders at the moment they have no idea of who they are letting in, literally no idea. They are released unchecked with no security checks whatsoever, what a bunch of gullible morons if they allow this, yes I know says the cyber criminal I can’t believe how naïve these idiots are.
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Our Protectors
Our only saving grace is the likes of the NCSC and other high quality cyber security organisations that are here to protect us. Without them protecting us from foreign cyber criminals both at home and abroad we would be in serious trouble. Ironically we liaise with some foreign organisations (the good guys) who are there to collaborate for our mutual benefit. One example is the UK-EU Cyber Dialogue to be held in London next year.
The EU is just one example of foreign relationships securing our cyber borders, without these foreign connections we would be in serious trouble, but why oh why do we let so many unknowns come to our country and roam freely. It makes no sense and puts us at greater risk of internal cyber attacks within our own organisations on English soil.
Summary
Foreigners are directly and indirectly a threat, if they are in England they are an even bigger potential threat. Gaining access is much easier, sometimes very easy as they are the ones on the payroll. Unchecked foreigners stream across our borders and the Government have no idea who they are and the potential cyber threat they represent. Thankfully we have robust cyber security in England and with foreign counterparts to protect us too.
