National security strategy fails on cyber crime policy

Brown: new threats demand new approaches

Prime minister Gordon Brown today announced a new national security strategy designed to tackle the changing face of threats to the UK.

But though the Cabinet Office paper makes references to recognising the threat of cyber crime, it makes only one suggestion on what the government might do to tackle the problem.

Launching the report, Brown said that a new approach was to national security was needed.

"As the national security strategy makes clear, new threats demand new approaches," he said. "A radically updated and much more co-ordinated response is now required."

The report says state-sponsored or terrorist cyber attacks are an increasing threat.

"As economies and societies grow increasingly dependent on national and global electronic information and communication systems, it becomes even more important to manage the risk of disruption to their integrity and availability through cyber attack, whether terrorist, criminal, or state-led," it says.

Although the report mentions investment in response to these new threats, it does not provide any details of where money is being invested, or how policy has changed, other than referring to a continued investment in modernising communications interception techniques.

The report goes on to highlight the importance of collaboration on these issues, without mentioning how it will facilitate this collaboration.

"We are committed to working with international, public, and private sector partners to ensure that our government systems and critical national infrastructure are adequately protected against cyber attack," it says.

Last December representatives of a number of businesses in the UK's critical national infrastructure said the government's policy on e-crime was dangerously lacking, leaving the country vulnerable to attack.