James Delahunty
13 Oct 2010 1:20
The head of Britain's electronic spying agency has warned that Britain is vulnerable to cyber attacks from hostile states or criminals that could adversely affect critical infrastructure. Iain Lobban, Director of British intelligence gathering facility GCHQ, said in a speech that targets such as power grids and emergency services are increasingly vulnerable due to the rapid growth of the Internet and technology.
"The threat is a real and credible one," he told an audience in London at the International Institute for Strategic Studies. "We already provide expert advice and incident response to the operators of critical services. We must continue to strengthen these capabilities and be swifter in our response, aiming to match the speed at which cyber events happen."
Of the millions of malicious e-mails that target computer users all of the world, about 1,000 are directly targeted at government systems, according to Lobban. Britain's critical national infrastructure that could be vulnerable include its mass communication services, financial services, health and transport. Lobban also warns about cyber threats that could damage the British economy.
"A knowledge economy needs to protect from exploitation the intellectual property at the heart of the creative and high-tech industry sectors," he said.
His warning comes as ministers weigh spending on defense and public services, with the Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition government looking to cut Britain's deficit as soon as possible. Protecting against cyber threats, Lobban argues, is not solely a national security or defense issue, but, "goes right to the heart of our economic well-being and national interest."