Submarines and software outsourced to Belarusians. “A security threat”

The software was supposed to have been created by British workers with security clearances, but its design was partly outsourced to programmers in Siberia and Minsk. As a result, there are fears that the code, created by Belarusian and Russian programmers, could be used to reveal the location of British submarines.

As described by the Daily Telegraph, Rolls-Royce Submarines, which builds for Royal Navy fleet of nuclear submarines, wanted to modernize its employees' intranet and commissioned the work from digital consulting firm WM Reply. The company then used programmers from Belarusone of whom, according to documents submitted to the Defense Ministry investigation, actually worked from home in Tomsk, Siberia.

The intranet system contained personal details of all Rolls-Royce Submarines employees, as well as the organisational structure of those working on the UK’s submarine fleet. In the summer of 2020, WM Reply employees began to raise alarm about the security implications of the Belarusian workers’ involvement in the project and suggested that Rolls-Royce should be informed. However, their superiors told them there was no need to “panic” and that Rolls-Royce did not need to be informed, as it could then cancel the project.

It was not until spring 2021, when concerns were raised directly with Rolls-Royce, that an investigation was launched. In summer 2022, the matter was referred to the Ministry of Defence, which prompted a further investigation that concluded in February last year.

According to documents submitted to the MoD investigation, WM Reply wanted to use the Minsk programmers to cut costs. Their work would cost “significantly less” than the British ones, so contracting them for the project, worth around half a million pounds in total, would boost the company’s profits.

Dr Marion Messmer, an expert at London-based think tank Chatham House, told the Daily Telegraph that allowing Belarusian and Russian programmers to work on such a project posed a “clear threat to national security”. Access by hostile states to the personal data of people working on the British submarine fleet carries the risk of “blackmail or targeted attack”, she stressed.

“What's great about submarines from a strategic point of view is that they are very difficult to detect and very mobile. If anyone had access to a tracking system that showed where (British) submarines were at all times, it would give them a huge strategic advantage. If they were planning to attack the UK, they could attack the nuclear submarines first and disable the Trident (nuclear deterrent system),” she said.

According to the Daily Telegraph, there are fears that it is not just the UK's submarine fleet that may have been compromised. It has emerged that the previous project was also outsourced to software developers in Minsk.