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Britain can lead the way in combating cyber crime
The London Conference on Cyberspace Security ended yesterday amid such security that the press are largely ignorant of any decisions taken but Anthony Rushton - the co-founder of Telemetry - said that cyber crime ‘opens the door of opportunity for the British tech industry’.
Some 700 officials and dignitaries from 60 nations attended the two day conference convened by British foreign secretary William Hague and held at The QEII centre on Parliament Square.
Security for the event – including private security guards in every corridor and police snipers on the roof – was so intense that virtually no details have emerged.
However, one of Britain’s leading internet engineering entrepreneurs, Mr Rushton, believes the British tech industry must seize the opportunity to lead the charge against the “very real” threat of cyber warfare.
“The issue of cyber war is a hot potato globally at present – it’s not science fiction, but science fact. The Government has no choice but to take the threat seriously and this opens the door of opportunity for the British tech industry,” said Mr Rushton.
Iain Lobban, GCHQ director of communications, said on Monday that government, defence, technology and engineering firm’s computers had all been targeted for cyber crime both by criminals and cyber spies working for foreign governments.
The Foreign Secretary William Hague organised the London Conference after criticism that the coalition were not doing enough to combat the threat from cyber warfare.
Speaking to the conference yesterday Prime Minister David Cameron said: "Let us be frank. Every day we see attempts on an industrial scale to steal government secrets -- information of interest to nation states, not just commercial organisations.
"Highly sophisticated techniques are being employed ... These are attacks on our national interest. They are unacceptable."
Mr Lobban said that the MoD had foiled more than 1,000 cyber attacks in the last twelve months and wrote: "The volume of e-crime and attacks on government and industry systems continues to be disturbing."
"I can attest to attempts to steal British ideas and designs - in the IT, technology, defence, engineering and energy sectors, as well as other industries - to gain commercial advantage or to profit from secret knowledge of contractual arrangements.”
"Such intellectual property theft doesn't just cost the companies concerned; it represents an attack on the UK's continued economic wellbeing."
Mr Rushton said that the vast majority of computer infrastructure in Britain was privately owned.
“It’s time we mobilised our considerable arsenal of technical skill and mounted a counter-attack – maintaining a good defence is not enough. It’s like conventional warfare – the winner needs to take the offensive,” he said.
Mr Rushton said that Britain’s tech industry was ready, willing and able to meet the challenge of fighting cyber attack.
