Rob Cotton, CEO, NCC Group plc, backs the head of GCHQ’s call to improve national information assurance
“Until now, the coalition government, and the Labour government before it, have merely paid lip service to the threat posed by serious cyber crime. It has effectively ignored calls from industry bodies, the media and security experts to make the investment that this serious threat to national security and UK economic growth warrants.
“We have been saying for years that the battle against cyber crime is a never ending arms race, with hackers – whether they be hostile government agents, gangsters or opportunistic teenagers in their bedrooms – becoming increasingly sophisticated in their methods and more radical in their targets.
“Now that Iain Lobban, head of GCHQ and the leading authority on threats to national security, has stressed the scale of this menace and the frequency of cyber attacks on the UK, surely the government will wake up and smell the coffee? While for security experts there has never been any doubt of the threats posed by cyber criminals, for the general public this is the most authoritative call yet.
“At present, the UK is losing the battle for security and we will only fall further behind unless the government makes a large investment in safeguarding our national information infrastructure and introduces even stricter guidelines surrounding corporate information security. However, with the Strategic Defence and Security Review and the Comprehensive Spending Review set to be lessons in penny pinching, investment in information assurance may yet again be bumped down the agenda.
“Mr. Lobban’s comments on the impact of an attack on the wider economy, and the effects cyber crime could have on frontline government services and utilities, should also not be underestimated. A large-scale attack could be devastating.
“In order to minimise this threat, the government must call upon security experts from across the country and if necessary the world, to produce a water-tight, considered strategy to battle cyber crime. While much of this protection can be achieved by patching simple vulnerabilities in existing networks and software – which should already be watertight – other threats will require specialist defence strategies and responsive action.
“The time has come for the UK to join the arms race, before we become powerless to assure national information security.”