UK Government To Launch US-Like Cybersecurity Center

Via ITProPortal.com -

The UK government is gearing up to launch a national cybersecurity centre to deal with soaring threats of hacking attacks from foreign states as well as criminal gangs.

Gordon Brown is likely to announce details of the move sometime around later this month in an attempt to check foreign states and cybercriminals breaking into government and business IT infrastructure, reported The Guardian.

Emulating US President Barack Obama's announcement of a new cybersecurity mechanism to safeguard IT infrastructure in the US, Brown is said to devise a similar strategy tailored to safeguard UK's IT systems against unauthorised intrusions.

The UK government is said to be working with the US and Canada to co-ordinate effectively in operations against online attacks by criminal gangs and foreign states.

The new move, which reportedly forms the centrepiece of the government's updated national Security Strategy, marks a U-turn in its security strategy to handle cybercrime, which until now has been handled by a shadowy group linked to various security agencies and intentionally kept low profile.

Incidentally, the head of MI5 Jonathan Evans has cautioned that several banks, accounting and legal firms in UK are under attack from “Chinese state organisations” since 2007. In addition to China, Western governments further suspect North Korea and Russia for sponsoring cyber attacks against them.

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Recently, U.S Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn III outlined the focus of the new DoD Cyber Command...

“Such a command would not represent the militarization of cyberspace,” Lynn said.

DOD will continue to focus on its .mil domain, while primary responsibility for the civilian .gov domain will remain with the Homeland Security Department. The private sector will be responsible for the rest of the country’s Internet infrastructure. He said DOD and the National Security Agency would be available to lend their expertise in cyber defense “in a way that upholds and respects our civil liberties.”