The New Cyber Security Strategy

The government has announced new measures to fight cyber crime, to promote economic growth and to protect our nation’s security and our way of life.


To specifically tackle the increased risk the UK electronic communications network faces from other countries' intelligence agencies and hackers.

These latest measures are part of a £650 million (over 4 years, so dont get too excited) drive to deal with cyber threats and develop responses to intrusions and attacks.

The intelligence agency GCHQ is to receive around £385m of the total budget to develop its ability to detect, defend and fight back online.

The government says there are more than 20,000 malicious emails sent to its networks each month, 1,000 of which are deliberately targeted.

A new police Cyber Crime Unit will be formed alongside a team at GCHQ which will fine-tune the country's military online capabilities, and a joint initiative between the public and private sector will also be launched to deal with cyber threats.

Individuals will be given more help to protect themselves, amid a warning from GCHQ that 80% of successful attacks could be thwarted by following simple steps like updating anti-virus software regularly.

Will it make a difference or is it just another excuse for a 'team of professionals' who do little and achieve even less....well let's wait and see in a years time when government will report on their progress?

If you have the time the new cyber security strategy documents can be read via the below Cabinet Office links.

• The UK Cyber Security Strategy (pdf, 1.1mb)
• The UK Cyber Security Strategy - Written Ministerial Statement (pdf, 50kb)

A vision for UK cyber security in 2015