UK and Germany team up against Russian cyberattacks

Prime Minister Andy Burnham and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz have agreed a new partnership to counter cyberattacks and sabotage.

The Prime Minister’s Office announced the counter-hybrid threat partnership on Thursday (8 October), as Burnham travelled to Berlin for his first face-to-face meeting with Merz.

The UK and Germany will share information and coordinate action to monitor, deter and disrupt hostile activity, with the government naming Russia as the leading source of the threat.

The partnership targets hostile actors’ ability to operate in Europe and will build resilience against cyber attacks, sabotage and threats to critical infrastructure.

“Attacks on our infrastructure, our businesses and our democracies are not a distant threat. They reach into people’s homes and workplaces, and they are designed to make us weaker and more divided,” said Burnham.

“Britain and Germany are joining forces to find, expose and disrupt this activity. Security and growth go hand in hand, and both must be felt in every town and city in our two countries,” he added.

The UK and Germany are Europe’s two largest economies and the continent’s biggest investors in defence.

Germany is the UK’s second-largest trading partner and contributes around £155 billion to the UK economy, according to the government.

New powers and a deepfake centre

The government said it had already fast-tracked legislation giving the Home Secretary new powers to designate state-backed organisations and proxy groups that threaten national security.

These powers will give police and intelligence agencies more tools to disrupt people working on behalf of designated organisations.

Burnham has also asked security chiefs to set up a National Centre for Information Defence, which will detect, attribute and disrupt hostile state information attacks.

The centre will also identify disinformation and deepfakes that damage British interests.

Burnham and Merz will also discuss support for Ukraine, instability in the Middle East and disruption to global trade routes such as the Strait of Hormuz.

The two leaders will convene a UK-Germany Regional Growth Forum with British and German CEOs, focused on unlocking investment and strengthening industrial partnerships.

The new measures build on the 2025 Kensington Treaty, which the two countries formally ratified on Thursday.

The treaty commits the UK and Germany to deeper cooperation on science, technology, defence, security and growth.

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