A Royal Navy contractor tried to save money by having communications software for nuclear engineers designed in Belarus
A firm hired to design software for a British submarine builder outsourced the job to programmers in Belarus and Russia, The Telegraph reported on Friday. According to British Defense Ministry documents seen by the newspaper, the company then tried to cover up this potential security breach.
The company, a digital consultancy firm called WM Reply, was hired in 2020 to build a staff intranet for Rolls-Royce Submarines, The Telegraph reported. Rolls-Royce’s nuclear engineers – who design submarines solely for the Royal Navy – would use this intranet to communicate while at work without the security risk of being connected to the wider internet.
Given the sensitive nature of Rolls-Royce Submarines’ work, British Defense Ministry rules stipulated that the intranet be designed only by UK-based staff with security clearances….