Suffolk reveals that he wasn't audited while government CIO

Speaking at an event on data privacy, Suffolk said he was surprised to have gotten off so lightly

Former government CIO John Suffolk revealed yesterday that he was never audited during his stint as Whitehall's IT supremo.

Speaking at the 'Information War' event examining the balance between national security, trade secrets and individual rights, Suffolk said: "I was never audited in government. I was pushed against a wall from a policy perspective, but never by an auditor."

Suffolk was government CIO for just under five years, and left the role late last year. He is now an adviser to the World Bank.

He went on to discuss the information government provides to the public around security.

He said that governments are often vague in the information they provide to the public around cyber security, and specifically the threats to government itself.

"Often the information we give to people is opaque. We say things like 'We could be attacked'. You want to ask, 'Well are we?'. And the truth is often we don't know."

He also said that people have been educated to expect definitive conclusions from data, which makes vague statements from government unsatisfying.

"People expect precision from data, so it's a difficult issue when governments start being nebulous."

This week Chancellor George Osborne revealed that the Treasury is subjected to a cyber attack every day on average. However, he revealed little as to the nature of the attacks.