Cyber Crime and Cyber Warfare in the Covid Era

2020 will be remembered as the year the world shut down. Restaurants, shops, night clubs, schools and all public gatherings closed down. Wherever possible, workers worked from home and the few commuters who travelled on public transport wore face masks to try and avoid passing or receiving infection. Generally the world slowed down and locked down. Industrial production was mostly ceased, canteens were closed, roads fell silent and suddenly birdsong seemed to grow in volume and intensity. One area of industry which continued and, indeed, continued to grow, was the dark and sinister world of cyber crime and cyber warfare.

The so-called Internet Research Centres of St Petersburg, where internet-savvy, multi-lingual staff worked around the shift-working clock churning out malicious disinformation, manipulating public opinion and stirring up public unrest in liberal western countries. Posing at climate-change warriors, anti-vaxxers and Brexiteers, but using a limited number of IP addresses, these ‘influencers’ posted under multiple false identities. In addition, cyber-hackers scored some significant triumphs in terms of disrupting the computer systems of high street banks, hospitals, transport systems, airline check-in systems, and the communications systems of many other vital services. A frightening development in an already scary world? Indeed it was, but it also provided new seams of possibilities for writers.

In my first novel in a series featuring the challenges faced by both police and MI5 – ‘The Hunt for WOTAK’ – the Cold War has never been colder than in 2020s post-Brexit Britain. The United Kingdom faces the prospect of becoming dis-united, and there is sporadic violent civil unrest. Meanwhile a hostile foreign state mounts regular incursions into Britain’s airspace and territorial waters. In the midst of this mounting chaos, a sinister individual calling himself ‘WOTAK’ claims responsibility for much of this hybrid warfare and seeks to hold the nation to ransom. A series of brutal murders, including that of the Foreign Secretary, raises the pressure on the Joint Intelligence Committee to establish who or what is WOTAK. With a little help from his friends, including murder squad detective Dave Lloyd, who is temporarily attached to the MI5 Counter-espionage team, MI5 officer Harry Edwards seeks to identify and neutralise WOTAK. However, he has no idea of the enormous personal cost this complicated operation will involve. This novel reached Amazon’s No 3 best seller in its genre.

In my next thriller – ‘When The Grey Wolf Sings’ – when an elderly Russian is burned to death in his car in north London, his 72-year-old friend, former KGB man Nikolai Volkov, determines to avenge his death. In the days that follow, the British prime minister goes missing, a wealthy Russian crime boss is mysteriously poisoned in Britain’s most secure prison, and the body of a youth is found at one of the UK’s most secret defence bases. When former detective turned MI5 agent-handler, Dave Lloyd, and his colleagues are tasked with establishing whether all these incidents are linked, and with identifying ‘The Ringmaster’, believed to have orchestrated them, help comes from an unexpected source. This book also made Amazon’s top 5 best seller list in spy thrillers.

In the fourth stand-alone book in the series – ‘A Long Road to Revenge’ – another Amazon Top 10 best seller, a decades old Russian bio-terror weapon is being deployed on the streets of London. People with no apparent connection are dying horribly and there is no clear motive. MI5’s Harry Edwards and Counter-Terrorism Command’s Detective Inspector Kit McGlone identify potential suspects, only to see them assassinated too. What deadly secret did the murder victims share, and who is killing the killers?

Book 5 in the series is ‘Shearwater Point’. Boston lawyer Dom Caffrey comes to Northern Ireland to seek his biological parents, but soon finds himself arrested on suspicion of murder. MI5 intelligence analyst Carole Murray also comes to the province to bury her murdered uncle. Events lead them to Shearwater Point, a stunning spot on the County Down coast. However, the breathtaking beauty of the location hides a dark history of cruelty, human exploitation and murder. Meanwhile, nearby, an ultra-right organisation is plotting a major terror attack.

There are more books to come in this series featuring MI5’s Counter-espionage team.