Guardian: UK energy infrastructure 'at risk of shutdown from cyber-attacks'

Security expert's warning follows agreement to allow Chinese firms minority stake in Hinkley Point C nuclear power station.

A leading security expert whose company holds contracts with the Ministry of Defence has warned that Britain's energy infrastructure is at risk of shutdown from cyber-attacks and the actions of foreign owners.

The warning from Chris McIntosh, a former lieutenant colonel in the Royal Signals and current chief executive of ViaSat UK, follows an invitation from George Osborne to Chinese companies to run UK nuclear reactors.

"What we have done in Britain is to have identified parts of our infrastructure as critical but not invested in them … Outsourcing to someone else not just makes them more vulnerable to cyber-attacks but allows the new owners to either invest or switch systems off. Would we consider outsourcing the army to China, or Germany or France?"  MORE