Foreign secretary to call for global action but say there is no proof of interference in UK

This article is more than 1 year old

This article is more than 1 year old

Jeremy Hunt is to promise the government will step up international efforts to prevent overseas cyber-attacks on elections, while insisting the UK has never succumbed to such outside interference.

A number of groups have called for an investigation into allegations that Russia was behind interference before the 2016 EU referendum, and for a wider examination of the role of foreign companies in the campaign.

In a speech in Glasgow, the foreign secretary will warn that without concerted global action, cyber-attacks could turn some elections into “tainted exercises, robbing the governments they produce of legitimacy”.

An advance trail of Hunt’s speech said he would, however, be “making clear that we have seen no evidence of successful interference in UK polls”.

In October, police said they would not investigate allegations of Russian interference in the referendum. A campaign group has begun a legal attempt to push the government to hold an inquiry into the claims.

Damian Collins, the Conservative chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, which is investigating the illegal use of data during the referendum campaign, has demanded police investigate potential criminal wrongdoing by three pro-Brexit campaigns the Electoral Commission found had broken the law.

In his speech, Hunt will speak more widely about international efforts to hamper elections. The government has identified Russia as being behind other interference attempts, such as the hacking of Democratic emails ahead of the previous US presidential election and the NotPetya cyber-attack targeting Ukraine.

In the extracts released in advance, he says: “We will always seek to discover which state or other actor was behind any malign cyber-activity, overcoming any efforts to conceal their tracks.

“That could include naming and shaming the perpetrator in public, in concert with our allies, exposing not only who carried out the action but, so far as possible, how it was done, thereby helping the cybersecurity industry to develop protective measures.”

He adds: “We will aim to prosecute those who conduct cybercrimes, demonstrating they are not above the law.”

Hunt will stress the potential harm caused by interference in elections: “The freedom to pass judgment on your leaders and change your government peacefully, through the ballot box, is the defining quality of a liberal democracy. Millions of people have made immense sacrifices for the sake of that essential liberty.

“Events have demonstrated how our adversaries regard free elections, and the very openness of a democratic system, as key vulnerabilities to be exploited. Authoritarian regimes possess ways of undermining free societies that yesterday’s dictators would have envied.”