The UK government has announced a public awareness campaign to encourage citizens to take 'small but important steps' in preparing for potential food or water shortages caused by cyber-attacks or severe weather events.

Cabinet Office Minister Darren Jones revealed plans for a nationwide initiative later this year, alongside the largest home defence exercise in decades, dubbed Operation Albiston Shadow.

The national risk register has been updated to include new threats such as cyber-attacks on water infrastructure and 'digital resilience failure'—a term referencing incidents like the global CrowdStrike outage that affected millions of devices.The UK's reliance on Russian gas has decreased, removing that risk from the list.The government emphasized that while it is well-prepared, public cooperation is essential to ensure national safety during emergencies.

The campaign will focus on practical measures to mitigate disruptions from cyber-attacks or extreme weather, including safeguarding access to power, water, and local food supplies.