Buckingham Palace More Than Doubles Cyber Security Spending as Russian Hacker Threat Escalates

Buckingham Palace has more than doubled its taxpayer-funded cyber security spending as concerns mount over a sustained and sophisticated threat from Russian-linked hackers targeting the Royal Family. Figures published in this year's Sovereign Grant report reveal that digital services expenditure has risen from £2.4 million in 2016-17 to £5.6 million in 2025-26 — a real-terms increase of £1.8 million that reflects what officials describe as an urgently evolving threat landscape.

The overhaul, which includes replacing what the Palace itself has called "ageing" computer systems, signals a significant shift in how the Royal Household is approaching its own security in the digital age — one where the battleground is no longer limited to palace gates and protection officers, but extends to servers, networks and the murky world of state-sponsored cyber warfare.

The Palace's concerns are far from hypothetical. In October 2023, the pro-Russian hacking group KillNet claimed responsibility for taking the Royal Family's official website, royal.uk, offline for roughly an hour and a half. It was not their first attempt: the group had previously claimed to have targeted Prince William's website in November 2022, framing both incidents as part of a broader campaign against Western institutions supporting Ukraine.

The threat has not been confined to direct hacking attempts, either. In 2024, a Russian disinformation network circulated a series of false claims about the British Royal Family as part of the Kremlin's ongoing information war.

Among the more brazen fabrications was the suggestion — spread via fake news sites — that King Charles had sold his royal residence Highgrove House to Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky for £20 million.

The spending increase is not merely about upgrading hardware. Over the past three years, Buckingham Palace has quietly built out a dedicated cyber security operation from within. The Household has hired an information security manager and filled several key roles within a new cyber security team, including a manager tasked specifically with developing the institution's risk and resilience capabilities against attacks.

The Royal Trustees' 2026 review stated plainly: "Expenditure also reflects the increasing importance of cyber security, as the threat landscape has evolved." Notably, however, the report stops short of confirming whether any of the ageing systems have already been successfully breached, or precisely how many require replacing — a gap that will likely prompt further questions from parliamentarians scrutinising the Sovereign Grant.

The Palace's digital reckoning comes against a backdrop of widening concern about Russian aggression towards Western institutions. A recent NHS data breach exposed confidential files believed to be linked to patients at royal residences including Windsor Castle and Sandringham, raising fresh alarm about the vulnerability of interconnected public and royal systems.

Meanwhile, Russian officials have engaged in increasingly pointed sabre-rattling against Western nations, threatening to strike military targets in the UK and other countries in response to support for Ukraine. Labour MP Tan Singh Dhesi, who chairs the Commons Defence Select Committee, has warned that investment in resilience — digital and military alike — cannot wait.

For an institution as symbolically powerful as the monarchy, the stakes of getting this right could not be higher. The Crown may be centuries old, but the threats it now faces are very much a product of the 21st century.