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01 Jul 2010
The new coalition government has pledged to work closely with the private sector on developing and implementing cyber security policy, according to the minister for security Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones.
Speaking at the Homeland and Border Security 2010 conference in London today, Neville-Jones argued that cyber security and information assurance are essential to encourage “high-value investment and innovation” in the UK.
“Good cyber security provides one essential underpinning the government can provide in order to help the private sector,” she added.
“We’ll be inviting the private sector to have a real say in developing policy – by that I mean the strategic approach and implementation.”
Neville-Jones admitted that policy making in this area is still in its infancy, but revealed that early discussions within the National Security Council had identified the importance of the private sector to the cyber security debate, not least because vital parts of the critical national infrastructure are run by businesses.
“The vital IP doesn’t lie in government, but government does have the capabilities to help protect against cyber threats,” she argued.
“So we want a partnership where we can help in that protection role while the private sector forms a trusted partnership so it can… provide a greater contribution to national GDP.”
However, Neville-Jones admitted that many businesses are woefully unaware of the level of risk facing them from cyber crime.
“People are absolutely not conscious of the way in which their IP can be raided,” she said. “You may not even know it has been stolen… if you don’t know how your IT systems work.”
However, the government can help improve this situation in several ways, perhaps by providing guidance and training, or through promoting information assurance, she said.
It could also play a part by using government procurement as a 'leverage' to force an improvement in security standards across the board.
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It should be a three step plan
We thoroughly support the new government pledging to work closely with the private sector on developing and implementing a cyber security policy and welcome the increased focus on a very important issue for all UK businesses; as exemplified by the numerous high profile data breach cases in recent months. An important starting point in developing such policy is to recognise that there will be weaknesses in any information security strategy, and the goal is to mitigate risk (whether it be from accidental leaks or via a more serious cyber criminal attack) to the highest possible degree using both detective and preventive controls. There are then three steps that need to be considered, the adherence to policies put specifically in place to limit access to IP, the implementation of measures to detect if a breach has occurred and finally the ability to deal with them effectively and remediate the breach to limit its impact or the possibility of it repeating.
Posted by: Todd Chambers, CMO, Courion 02 Jul 2010