UK cyber security undermined by confused chain of command

But situation has improved since ministerial responsibility was passed to the Cabinet Office

The government has shown "confusion and duplication of effort" in its approach to cyber security, according to the Intelligence and Security Committee's (ISC) annual report.

The report said that some of the confusion and duplication came from the fact that the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) was hosted by the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) while being led by the Director of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA).

However, ministerial responsibility lay with yet another department, the Home Office, specifically the Minister for Security.

The report states that when the ISC asked Baroness Neville-Jones, Security Minister at the time, about the organisational structure of the cyber crime effort, she agreed that it was "not ideal".

And the committee found that government agencies held similar concerns.

According to the report, the director general of the Security Service (MI5) told the committee:

"It's not clear what the overall architecture is going to be for cyber security going forward."

And, the chief of the Secret Intelligence Service (SIS, or MI6) said: "I'm not sure the Cabinet Office processes for determining what is a coherent cyber programme [are] as sophisticated as [they] should be."

However, the report admits that these issues were largely resolved in May this year when ministerial responsibility for cyber security was transferred to the Minister for the Cabinet Office.

This post is currently held by Francis Maude.

The committee expressed its approval of this transfer of responsibility in the report.

"We strongly support the government's decision to move ministerial responsibility to the Cabinet Office."

The version of the report available to the public has been censored by official sources, with information about funding, and exact numbers of staff at security agencies redacted.

The ISC is an independent committee that examines the policy, administration and expenditure of the three UK intelligence and security agencies: MI5, MI6 and the GCHQ.