Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment has he made of the level of threat posed by Russia to the integrity and security of the UK's communications networks.

The government’s approach to securing the UK’s telecommunications networks is underpinned by world-leading security analysis from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). This analysis provides a comprehensive understanding of the risks and threats faced by the UK telecoms sector, and is informed by, inter alia, details of previous attacks on the UK telecoms networks, and the NCSC’s knowledge of global attacks on telecoms systems, regardless of the attacker. The NCSC’s security analysis is subject to constant review as the risks and threats change, and their advice to the government is updated accordingly.

The Telecoms Security Bill will ensure we have the powers we need to drive up security standards and control the presence of High Risk Vendors. The new security framework will be one of the strongest regimes for telecoms security in the world, which will look to address the vulnerabilities exploited by cyber attackers, including those from Russia.