Labour shamed on cyber security

The majority of information security professionals are in the dark over the main political parties' policies on cyber security, according to a poll from data loss prevention and archiving firm Proofpoint.

The vendor asked 140 security professionals at the recent Infosecurity Europe show in London, which party they thought would do the most to improve cyber security in the UK.

Despite Labour's belated efforts to introduce a Cyber Security Operations Centre to GCHQ and create an Office of Cyber Security based in the Cabinet, it polled the worst out of the major parties with just seven per cent.

The Lib Dems fared little better with 11 per cent while the Tories just crept in to the lead with 12 per cent.

However, more telling was that 57 per cent said they didn't know, indicating that the major parties still have a long way to go to engage with and reassure the security community that they have a coherent cyber security strategy.

The argument could in fact be extended to technology in general. As our recent round up series on the main political parties' tech manifestos shows, they leave the reader with more questions than answers.

There are many aspirations in the manifestos, from all the major parties, but when questioned on specifics they go a little quiet. In fact, when V3.co.uk pushed them just a little on certain issues we were sometimes met with a rather terse response from their press officers.

Take from this what you will, but it would seem that technology and information security are still a pretty long way down the policy agenda pecking order.