UK Military Fast-Tracks Cybersecurity Recruitment

The UK military is fast-tracking the recruitment of specialist cybersecurity roles, offering candidates one of the highest starting salaries in the armed forces.

Cyber recruits will receive a starting salary of over £40,000, with opportunities for additional skills-based pay as they gain expertise and experience.

The UK Ministry of Defence (MoD) announced the new, bespoke entry route into the military for aspiring cyber professionals on February 6. This scheme will see cyber recruits’ basic training reduced from 10 weeks to around one month, after which they will undergo three months specialist training.

This training will be conducted at the Defence Cyber Academy in Shrivenham, Oxfordshire.

The plan is for recruits to be embedded into operational cyber roles by the end of 2025.

Some of these roles will encompass securing the networks and services of UK armed forces at the MoD’s digital headquarters in Corsham, Wiltshire.

Others will become part of the UK’s National Cyber Force, conducting offensive cyber operations to disrupt hostile state and non-state cyber actors who are threatening national security.

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Cyber “a New Front Line” for the UK

The fast-track entry route comes amid a surging number of cyber intrusions by hostile states outside of open-armed conflict.  

The MoD said the UK had experienced 90,000 such attacks in the past two year.

The government highlighted the evolving nature of warfare, with cyber capabilities being used alongside physical attacks. As a result, the armed forces must be equipped to address this challenge.

The new scheme also aims to address a recruitment and retention “crisis” in the armed forces, including in cybersecurity roles, the UK government added.

Minister for the Armed Forces, Luke Pollard, commented: “It is essential that we step up our cyber defense, fast-tracking the brightest and the best cyber specialists to help protect the UK and our allies.  We are in a new era of threat, with cyberspace as a new front line.”

In November 2024, UK’s Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, Pat McFadden, warned that Russia is planning destructive cyber-attacks against the UK, including potentially targeting electricity networks.