UK and Australian governments to co-operate on cyber warfare

Defence Secretary takes up the cudgels on strike capability

The governments of Australia and the UK are to hold high-level talks on cyber-security co-operation this week.

Foreign secretary William Hague and defence secretary Liam Fox are on their way to Sydney to meet Australia's defence minister Stephen Smith and foreign minister Kevin Rudd at the third Australia-United Kingdom Ministerial (Aukmin) talks.

As well as conventional security concerns such as the war in Afghanistan, collaboration on cyber warfare will also be on the agenda, according to ZDNet Australia.

The meeting comes in the same week as a report from the OECD that says the threat of cyber warfare has been exaggerated by "heavy lobbying, lurid language and poor analysis".

The coalition has been quick to issue a call-to-arms over government- and terrorist-backed cyber warfare. Last November Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat defence minister under Fox, called for the UK to develop offensive capabilities as well as toughen its cyber security.

"We should also be able to prevent, deter, coerce or even intervene in cyberspace... including the capability to exploit the weaknesses of our opponents," said Harvey.

Defence analysts have commented that a large part of Harvey's motivation in adopting cyber security as his rallying cry was to ensure that the defence budget was maintained at a time when, like other government departments, defence was facing massive cuts.

Indeed, the Ministry's strategic Defence and Security Review has promised to spend £650m over the next four years on the National Cyber Security Programme, and created a new UK Defence Cyber Operations Group.