Unveiling a new national cyber security strategy

November 9, 2016

The Chancellor, Philip Hammond – formerly Secretary of State for Defence – has formally launched the Government’s new National Cyber Security Strategy, which sets out decisive action to protect the UK economy and the privacy of British citizens, while encouraging industry to up its game to prevent damaging cyber attacks.

The new plan outlines how the UK will:

use automated defences
support the UK’s growing cyber security industry
develop a world-class cyber workforce
deter cyber attacks from criminals and hostile actors

With the global cost of cyber crime estimated to be $445 billion, the new approach is to form a core part of the forthcoming industrial strategy.

Outlining the new plan, the Chancellor argued that society is increasingly vulnerable to cyber attacks owing to the expanding range of connected devices; more demand for skills; old legacy IT systems; and readily available hacking tools.

The National Cyber Security Strategy will be underpinned by £1.9 billion for dedicated actions under the three key headings of Defend, Deter and Develop.

The Government will strengthen its own defences as well as ensuring industry takes steps to protect critical national infrastructure by working with industry to use automated defence techniques to reduce the impact of cyber attacks.

The Chancellor pointed to the recent successes of government in significantly reducing the time during which website serving web-inject malware, UK-based phishing sites and phishing sites impersonating government’s own departments would stay active.

Significant investment will take the fight to those who threaten Britain in cyberspace, through strengthening law enforcement capabilities to raise the cost of cyber crime, building international partnerships and being clear that the UK will defend itself in cyberspace and retaliate against those trying to harm UK interests.

The new plan emphasises the development of the nation’s capabilities with increased investment in the next generation of students and experts.

The Chancellor also announced a new Cyber Security Research Institute – a virtual collection of UK universities.

Mr Hammond said: “Britain is already an acknowledged global leader in cyber security thanks to our investment of over £860 million in the last Parliament, but we must now keep up with the scale and pace of the threats we face.’’

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