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Geopolitical conflicts increasingly spilling into digital realm

May 15, 2026

The first half of 2026 has been defined by nation-state adversaries targeting UK enterprises, reports NetScout. Earlier this year, the UK Government Cyber Action Plan, backed by £210 million, pledged to fortify supply chain defences. In April, Dr Richard Horne, CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), warned that the UK faces “tumultuous uncertainty” driven by threat actors in China, Iran and Russia.

This comes as geopolitical conflicts are increasingly spilling into the digital realm. In fact, major international events have already seen sharp surges in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks linked to this. During February’s Winter Games, Italian infrastructure saw a 181 per cent increase in attack volume, with pro-Russian groups such as NoName057(16) claiming significant responsibility. Looking ahead, the upcoming G7 Summit and Football World Championships will be highly tempting targets for threat actors.

Darren Anstee, CTO for security at NetScout, discusses how the presence of nation-state affiliated threat actors has grown: “The relationship between global geopolitics and DDoS activity has become closer in recent times – today, cyberattacks almost move in lockstep with geopolitical conflict. For over 15 years, we have seen real-world events echoed on the digital battlefield – from the 2007 attacks on Estonia to the current volatility surrounding Ukraine and the Middle East. However, the big shift we’ve seen in the last few years is around the range of targets being hit.”

“We are now seeing high-volume attacks coinciding with events at the national level, such as disruptions linked to regional protests, local elections, and political speeches. These events, with minimal global geopolitical significance, are becoming standard targets for reactionary cyber aggression.”

“The targets being selected vary depending on the primary goal of the hacktivist adversary. Some groups are looking to generate media noise, taking aim at high-profile targets where any impact has limited strategic importance. Others are selecting targets based on the impact any outage would have to economies and day-to-day life.”

“So what can UK firms and enterprises do to keep themselves safe from the attacks perpetrated by nation state threat actors? First and foremost, these threat actors are no longer focused solely on organisations directly involved in geopolitical conflict. Simply being associated with what would be considered a primary target, as a part of a supply chain, is enough. All UK firms must assume that they are at risk of attack, and must therefore ensure they have appropriate, layered defences in place. These include on-premise to defend critical applications and vulnerable infrastructure, such as firewalls, and in the cloud to deal with the increasing number of high-scale attacks we are seeing,” concluded Anstee.

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