Admiral calls to boost online war on terror

TERRORISM fears have prompted the former head of the Royal Navy to question the strength of the UK's strategy to tackle online extremism.
Admiral Lord Alan WestAdmiral Lord Alan West
Admiral Lord Alan West

Admiral Lord Alan West has said he is worried terror groups would be able to slip past Britain’s cyber security net, wreaking havoc on the nation’s streets.

The concerns come after a terror attack at a Christmas market in Berlin left 12 dead.

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Speaking in the House of Lords, Lord West said: ‘Every day one can see on the web a mass of efforts by Daesh to recruit people in the west, telling them to kill people – by gun, knife, lorry, car, whatever. We have some of the best people in the world working in the web environment.

‘Does the minister believe that we are doing as much as we should to stop this, to take down these sites, to get attribution of those who are doing some of these things and to make actual attacks – taking down main servers and hard drives, which we are able to do, getting in among them and indeed spreading separate propaganda, dissention, worry and concern?’

Responding, Baroness Susan Williams said Britain was leading the way in disrupting terror groups online, adding: ‘I think that we can be very proud of what we are doing.’