Government set for 'step change' in cyber security funding

The government is to step up investment in its national cyber security strategy with a major round of new funding in an effort to bolster the protection of critical national infrastructures.

Neil Thompson, director of the Office for Cyber Security, told the audience at a Royal United Services Institute conference that the announcement would be made as part of next week's strategic defence and security review, according to The Guardian.

Thompson reportedly said that cyber attacks are "cheap, quick and deniable", and require a "step change" in the government's approach.

The comments came on the same day as GCHQ director Ian Lobban warned that the UK is facing the very real threat of a cyber terrorist attack.

"There are over 20,000 malicious emails on government networks each month. Cyber space lowers the bar for entry to the espionage game for states and criminals," he said in a speech at the International Institute for Strategic Studies.

Richard Clarke, a former White House cyber security advisor, said at the RSA Conference Europe yesterday that governments including the UK and US are woefully unprepared for a concerted cyber attack on critical national infrastructure.

"We need in all countries to stop worrying about cyber war on the offensive and start worrying about cyber war on the defensive," he said.

"We all need public-private plans to defend the systems that matter. We have strategies, but they don't tell you how to defend the country from an active cyber attack."