The US Just Bent Over for Putin — And They’ve Left Every UK SMB Holding Its Own Arse in the Wind
“I don’t normally do geopolitics. I’m too busy trying to stop your staff from clicking on fake PayPal emails. But this shitshow affects every UK business that uses the internet — so now, you get the rant you never asked for.”
Let me set the scene.
I’m not some self-important political commentator sitting in a London café, pretending to understand geopolitics because I once read an Economist headline. I’m an IT professional. My job — my entire reason for existing professionally — is to help businesses like yours stop being hacked, scammed, or digitally pantsed by cybercriminals.
I care about backups, patching, passwords, phishing training, and stopping Jeff in Accounts from downloading some ‘free Excel unlocker’ that’s actually Russian malware. That’s my lane.
But every now and again, the people at the top make a decision so galactically stupid that it cascades directly down onto my desk — and worse, onto your businesses. And the latest beauty from our “special relationship” cousins across the pond? An absolute fucking masterpiece of idiocy.
What’s actually happened? Pull up a chair.
Trump’s freshly installed Defence Secretary — Pete Hegseth, who appears to have been hired based on his ability to scream at cameras rather than any actual defence credentials — has just ordered US Cyber Command to stand down against Russian cyber threats.
Let me spell that out.
The US government’s top cyber warriors — the people actively tracking, hacking back, and disrupting Russian cyber gangs — have been told to sit on their hands and think about China and Iran instead.
This isn’t strategy. This is foreign policy Tinder dating. They’ve swiped left on the country that invented modern digital fuckery — because they’ve got a new crush on Beijing.
Why you, the UK business owner, should care (even though you didn’t cause this mess)
I know what you’re thinking — “Alright mate, but this is an American thing. Why do I care? I’ve got payroll to run and Susan’s still whinging that the printer’s offline.”
Here’s why.
The digital front line doesn’t stop at Dover. When the US stops tracking Russian threats, the intelligence they normally share with the UK, with NATO, with every Western ally — dries up. And guess what happens next? We all get caught with our digital trousers down when the Russians inevitably turn their attention to easier targets — like you.
Let’s take a quick trip down memory lane.
NotPetya — AKA "Whoops, We Accidentally Nuked Maersk"
Russia launched NotPetya, aimed at Ukraine. But like a drunk bloke setting off fireworks indoors, they didn’t exactly check where it would land. Maersk — one of the biggest shipping companies on Earth — got flattened. Completely bricked 50,000 machines, cost over £8 billion, and shut down global shipping lanes.
That’s what happens when Russia is actively being watched. Imagine what they’ll do now they’ve been given a free pass to experiment.
Colonial Pipeline — "Why’s There No Petrol?"
Russian hackers took down the biggest fuel pipeline in the US, and suddenly, Americans were fist-fighting at petrol stations like it was Mad Max. That attack could easily have been on a UK petrol supplier — and if you think they’d stop after fuel, you’ve got the imagination of a houseplant.
SolarWinds — "Let’s Just Casually Infiltrate Everything"
Russian state hackers infiltrated SolarWinds, giving themselves a free VIP pass into thousands of corporate and government networks. Supply chain attacks like this are the cyber equivalent of pissing in the reservoir — everyone drinks the consequences.
And then there’s election interference.
2016 and 2020. Russian troll farms didn’t just hack data — they hacked reality. Fake news? That’s their invention. They industrialised bullshitting at scale, and they’ve been perfecting it ever since. If you think this is just a US problem, you’ve clearly never seen a Facebook comment section during a UK election.
What the US has done — and why it screws UK SMBs directly
Here’s where you — the law firm, the car dealership, the accounting firm, the school — come into this circus of stupidity.
1. Threat intelligence just took a bullet to the head
A huge amount of the threat intelligence that protects UK businesses flows straight from US Cyber Command’s work on Russian threats. That intelligence feeds into:
✅ Your antivirus updates
✅ Your firewall rules
✅ The “why this email got blocked” logic in your spam filter
✅ The “let’s kill this process before it locks the server” rules in your EDR software
Without that? You’re running your business on outdated maps in the middle of a fucking minefield.
2. Ransomware gangs just got promoted to headliners
Russia’s ransomware gangs already love UK SMBs. You’re profitable enough to pay, but too small to have a proper security team. Now, with no one hunting them, they’ll have more time, more resources, and more motivation to target you.
That email you think came from DPD? Next time, it won’t just be a scam — it’ll be a full-blown ransomware infection, and your accounts data will be encrypted, sold, and leaked before you can say “do we have backups?”
3. Supply chain attacks will hit everything you use
Do you rely on cloud software, SaaS apps, managed services, or American tech vendors? Congratulations — your whole stack is now part of the attack surface. If Russia owns your supplier, they own you.
4. UK infrastructure just moved up the target list
Russia likes to make a point. When the US steps back, they’ll want to remind everyone they’re still top bastard in town. And who’s next in line? Us. The UK. With our creaking infrastructure, underfunded public sector IT, and a government still thinking that cyber is some nerd shit they can ignore.
5. Cyber insurance? Good luck with that.
Insurance companies base their premiums on risk models — and those models rely on up-to-date threat intelligence. When that dries up, insurers assume the worst. Prices go up. Coverage goes down. And pretty soon, only banks and multinationals can afford policies.
Why I’m this angry (and why you should be too)
Because this isn’t theoretical geopolitical waffle. This is real-world risk to real businesses — the kind I work with every single day.
This affects:
🚗 The garage that gets locked out of its booking system.
💼 The solicitor who loses client data and gets smashed with GDPR fines.
🏫 The school that can’t access safeguarding records because ransomware ate the server.
📦 The wholesaler who can’t order stock because their ERP went tits-up after a supply chain hack.
What you need to do (since governments are useless)
Get serious about security.
Antivirus is not enough. You need EDR, decent backups, actual staff training, and a response plan you’ve rehearsed.Assume you’re a target.
Because you are. SMBs get hit more than anyone else — because you’re easy meat.Get insurance now.
Prices are only going one way.Hold your IT provider’s feet to the fire.
If they’re not all over this, find someone who is.Start shouting.
Talk to your trade bodies, your MP, your chamber of commerce. Cybersecurity is everyone’s problem now.
For fucks sake stop waiting for help.
The cavalry isn’t coming. The US just quit the game. The UK is asleep at the wheel. The only people protecting your business are you — and people like me, who are already stretched thin trying to save everyone from their own bad passwords.
