By Ben Kerrigan-
Automatic defences to stop Cyber attacks and hackers hijacking websites or spoofing official domains is to get a boost from a £1.9 bn, government, Chancellor Philip Hammond will say in a speech today.
The welcome news will include defences that intercept booby-trapped emails and prevent thieves impersonating bank websites .The strategy will also bolster the efforts of police units that tackle organised online gangs.
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Extra cash is also expected to go into the education and training of cyber security experts.
Mr Hammond will formally launch the National Cyber Security scheme on Tuesday.
UK WARNING
Mr Hammond’s speech is believed to have been ignited by a warning from MI5 that Russia poses an increased cyber-threat.
“It is using its whole range of state organs and powers to push it’s foreign policy abroad in increasingly aggressive ways – involving propaganda, espionage, subversion and cyber attacks,” Andrew Parker, the domestic security agency’s director general told the Guardian
Cyber Attacks
The National Cyber Security Strategy which is designed to protect the UK economy and the privacy of British citizens will also encourage the industry to boost up efforts to prevent cyber-attacks.
Mr Hammond said Britain “must now keep up with the scale and pace of the threats we face”.
“Our new strategy. will allow us to take even greater steps to defend ourselves in cyberspace and to strike back when we are attacked,” he added.
The announcement comes in the wake of the recent Wikileaks public revelation of Hilary Clinton’s emails, believed to be aimed at meddling in the U.S elections. No concrete evidence has been given to corroborate the claims that the elections were the sole objectives of the leaks, though U.S intelligence has stated this to be the case.
However, the £1.9bn outlay for the national strategy was allocated in 2015 before the Wikileaks emails, showing the scheme to have been a pre-existing plan in the pipeline even before the Wikileaks revelations. and will fund the programme until the end of 2020.
Automated systems that limit how much malware and spam reaching UK citizens has already been put in place. Other projects have helped the government verify the origin of emails, aimed at counteracting specific tax fraud campaigns aimed at the UK.
Extra cash for recruiting over 50 specialists who will work in the cyber crime unit at the National Crime Agency. It is believed this will help tackle organised gangs, and aim to raise the costs of engaging in hi-tech crime, making it much less attractive. The National cyber security strategy is necessary in today’s world of intrusive hacking directed at compromising the privacy of emails and website information and stealing of money.
Cyber Security
A Cyber Security Research Institute that aimed at uniting researchers across the UK’s universities to work together on improving defences for smartphones, laptops and tablets will also be created.
Security-based start-ups will also get help via an innovation fund that will commercialise work on novel tools and defences.
Prof Alan Woodward, a computer security expert, professor Alan Woodward, from the University of Surrey,told the BBC he hoped the government spent cash on the “high volume, low sophistication attacks” that plague people and cause the majority of financial losses.
“I hope the £1.9bn will be spent in growing talent,” he said. “The government talk about 50 recruits here and 50 there. I’m afraid we need many more.”
Prof Woodward said it was getting “increasingly difficult” to persuade young people to study computer science and getting them to try cybersecurity was “a real headache”.
“I would really like to see money put into reaching young people early enough to influence the subjects they decide upon at school and pairing an image for them of just how interesting and rewarding a career in cyber security can be,” he said