UK Government to Warn Public How to Prepare for Cyber-Attacks and Extreme Weather
Ministers are updating Britain's classified crisis plans for the first time in two decades and launching a public awareness campaign, as officials cite AI-assisted crime and record temperatures as growing threats.
Key points
- The UK government is launching a nationwide public awareness campaign telling people how to prepare for emergencies including cyber-attacks and severe weather.
- Britain's classified national crisis plans, known as "war books", are being updated for the first time since 2004.
- Ministers will run a multi-day emergency exercise called Operation Albiston Shadow to test the country's response to coordinated hybrid attacks.
- Officials pointed to record-breaking temperatures in May and June 2026, and AI-assisted criminal activity, as reasons the update is urgent.
Britain's government is preparing its citizens for a rougher world. A new resilience campaign will tell ordinary people what they can do if a cyber-attack or severe weather event cuts off power, water or phone signal, or closes the local shops where they buy food.
The announcement, reported by BBC News, came with a statement from minister Pat McFadden who drew a line from historical crises, plagues, wars, flooding, to the threats arriving now. Two stood out: extreme heat and AI-powered crime.
This year the UK saw temperature records broken in May, only for those records to fall again in June. Officials also flagged that artificial intelligence, software that can learn and act without constant human instruction, is giving criminals new ways to carry out cyber-attacks at scale and speed. It's a pattern we noted when covering Britain's AI security push on 9 July.
What does a cyber-attack actually do to ordinary people?
A cyber-attack on critical infrastructure, meaning the computer systems running essential services like energy grids or water networks, can leave people without power, running water or a working phone. It doesn't need to target your personal device to affect your daily life. The government's campaign will spell out practical steps, building on guidance already on the official government website.
Beyond the public-facing campaign, ministers are running Operation Albiston Shadow, a multi-day exercise designed to test how well the country responds to a hybrid attack. Hybrid attacks combine physical disruption with digital sabotage: cutting power lines while simultaneously attacking the computer systems used to restore them.
The most striking detail is the war books update. These are the UK's classified, step-by-step crisis response plans. They haven't been revised since 2004, a year before YouTube existed and long before smartphones were common. The world those plans were written for looks nothing like the world today.
For people at home, practical advice will arrive through the awareness campaign. The government has flagged the basics: think about what you'd do if the power went out for several days, or if your phone stopped working. Having cash, a battery-powered radio and a water supply are the kinds of measures most national preparedness guidance recommends.
The update to classified plans is overdue and the public campaign is welcome, but the test will be whether Operation Albiston Shadow surfaces gaps that actually get fixed, not filed.
