MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Cyberattacks against democratic elections can turn them into "tainted exercises" and eventually rob governments of legitimacy, UK Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt is reportedly set to say in his speech in Glasgow later on Thursday.

Jeremy Hunt will stress that while the United Kingdom had not seen any evidence of successful interference in its elections, its adversaries were still seeking to put UK democracy under pressure using cyberattacks.

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"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… At a minimum, trust in the democratic process is seriously undermined. But in a worst-case scenario, elections could become tainted exercises, robbing the governments they produce of legitimacy," Hunt will say, according to the Sky News broadcaster.

Hunt will reportedly specify that apart from examples of "publicly attributed interference," there are also some cases that have never been revealed.

He will pledge that the United Kingdom will make effort to identify countries and individuals behind any cyberattack and expose "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."

The foreign secretary will also talk about four principles of the so-called doctrine of deterrence, which will deal with economic and diplomatic punishment for the perpetrators.

Apart from that, Hunt is set to announce an increase in the number of officials responsible for cybersecurity.