Government Cyber-Security Spending Breakdown

Details are emerging of how the government will spend its £650 million on cyber-security measures.

Delegates at the the Counter Terror Expo heard Ian McGhie, deputy director of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance, announce that funds would go into the National Cyber Security Programme (NSCP). The programme was developed in response to the Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The Big Spend Breakout

The NSCP has been established to address cyber threats to government, international bodies, private companies and individuals. The unit will receive 65 percent of the funding pool, 20 percent will be used to protect the UK critical infrastructure and nine percent will be spent on fighting cybercrime.

In addition, one percent of the remaining money will bolster education on cyber-defence issues and the final five percent will be held in reserve.

McGhie said that he would like to see more involvement from private sector industry bodies. In February, prime minister David Cameron and government ministers met with heads of industry, including British Airways, BT and the National Grid, to discuss allowing their network data to be analysed by the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC). This resulted in the formation of a new cross-sector working party that will be reporting back this autumn.

It appears there will be plenty of opportunities for the UK IT sector. According to McGhie, the government is keen to maintain a “sovereign capability” regarding the means used for defence. Security and information assurance products will be created, or at least independently tested, in the UK and will not rely on products developed in other countries.

Some of the funding will go to the CSOC. Linked to GCHQ, CSOC will be the focus for national cyber-defence and attack strategies, especially in the Public Sector Network (PSN) and the planned G-Cloud infrastructure. The operations centre will be responsible for adopting authentication standards for PSN and the hardening of data centres that will house both the network core and the G-Cloud.