Equinix Takes UK Security Woes To Westminster

Whilst we’ve all been hard at work attending as many Christmas gatherings as possible, it seems data centre connector Equinix has been hard at work telling the UK Government exactly how to beef up Britain’s cyber defense strategies.

Equinix, spearheaded on this occasion by UK managing director Russell Poole, joined culture minister Ed Vaizey and techUK boss Julian David to discuss at the House of Commons this week the current cyber security threats facing UK organisations.

Growing threats

The three agreed, naturally, that businesses and the Government must work closely to address the growing threats in the UK. Poole called the lack of preparation against cyber threats in the UK “alarming”, and said that cyber security has to be the top priority for UK businesses.

“Cyber-attacks will not go away soon and we all know that is a growing issue in the UK,” said Poole. “We would ideally like to see a more joint approach from various governments to tackle this issue.”

The UK Government recently announced that it would be investing £1.9 billion into cyber security initiatives, with plans to create a National Cyber Centre and also rebuff a skills programme that will teach businesses how to stay safer. A further £500,000 has been spent on universities across the UK to improve cyber security training.

“Overall we want cyber security not to be seen as just an IT issue you leave to the IT department – it’s got to be at the top of the agenda in the board room too,” said Vaizey.

“Government, business and academia all have a role to play to improve cyber security and we’ll be setting out future plans in our National Cyber Security Strategy next year.”

Of course, Equinix was not without its own agenda. The company, which this year purchased data centre provider Telecity for a whopping £2.35 billion, cited its recent ‘Enterprise of the Future’ report. The report identified that 7 out of 10 IT decision makers still feel inadequately protected against the threat of cyber-attacks.

The answer to these worries? Equinix’s interconnection framework, according to the company. Equinix claims its interconnection framework (ie, its entire platform) can lower a company’s risk profile in ways that meet specific security concerns.

“We will do our part to help the UK government and business work together to keep IT infrastructures compliant, safe and under control,” said Poole.

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