UK’s new aircraft carrier uses Windows XP and could be vulnerable to cyber-attack

Britain’s new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth, which has left the Rosyth dockyard, could be vulnerable to a cyber-attack as it appears to be using the outdated Windows XP operating system.

But officers aboard the otherwise cutting-edge £3.5billion (US$4.45billion) carrier, which is the biggest and most powerful vessel ever built for the Royal Navy, insist that they are well prepared to defend against such attacks and will have a team of cyber specialists on board.

During a tour of the carrier, screens were spotted using what appeared to be the outdated 2001 Windows XP. That Microsoft OS was targeted by the WannaCry ransomware attack in May that disrupted parts of the National Health Service and other companies worldwide. Parliament came under cyber-attack on Friday with the accounts of about 90 MPs hacked.

Questions have also been raised about the vulnerability of the UK’s new Trident nuclear submarine system, though the Ministry of Defence insists that submarines are isolated when at sea.

Mark Deller, commander air on the Queen Elizabeth, said: “The ship is well designed and there has been a very, very stringent procurement train that has ensured we are less susceptible to cyber than most. With regards to someone wanting to jam my radio frequencies, we will have an escort and destroyers around us that will ward off people who try and impact our output. That’s normal routine business at sea.”

He added: “We are a very sanitised procurement train. I would say compared to the NHS buying computers off the shelf, I would think we are probably better than that. If you think more Nasa and less NHS you are probably in the right place. If the Chinese want to flood the market with a particular widget and they put £30 million into it, one will eventually get through to the defence procurement chain. We have got people looking at stuff like this all the time.