Potential cyberattacks on the UK's weapons and satellite navigation networks could trick precision missile systems into attacking the wrong targets, The Times has cited experts as saying.
Patricia Lewis, research director for international security at the London-based foreign affairs think tank Chatham House, noted that "what worries us most is not so much intercepting and perhaps preventing [satellite] information from getting through."
READ MORE: UK Says Cyber Capabilities Would Be Used in 'Accordance With International Law'
According to her, the main concern is "manipulating and 'spoofing' it so that the information that you get for your weapons systems for targeting or for command and control is wrong — and you don't know it's wrong."
Lewis added that both European and US space systems had repeatedly faced "successful and attempted cyberhacks."
Her cautionary words were echoed by Jack Watling, research fellow for land warfare at Royal United Services Institute, the armed forces think tank, who warned that spoofing satellite navigation systems would have far-reaching consequences.
READ MORE: Modern Weapons No Longer Guns, They are Computers That Can Fire – Cyber Expert
"The worst-case scenario is that you start launching precision strikes at, say, an enemy strongpoint and it lands on a hospital rather than on the target," Watling said.
"In recent cybersecurity tests of major weapon systems DoD is developing, testers playing the role of adversary were able to take control of systems relatively easily and operate largely undetected," the survey said.
In 2016, the British government pledged to inject 265 million pounds (about 348 million dollars) into a new cyber-vulnerability investigations program, with the Ministry of Defense vowing at the time that they are ready to tackle "cyberthreats wherever they come from."
