PHOTO: The British Government’s electronic intelligence headquarters GCHQ
I spoke with BBC Gloucestershire this morning about the British Government’s response to the Islamic State’s attacks in Paris, including a 15% increase in staffing of intelligence security services and Tuesday’s announcement of $2 billion for a National Cyber Centre.
While acknowledging the need for effective security, I was decidedly sceptical about the Government’s motives — and how effective the declared measures will be.
First, just simply throwing money at this and saying there’s a cyber-threat does not do anything if you do not connect up electronic intelligence with good information from the ground. Otherwise, you end up searching for a needle in a haystack….
Second, the real problems which have to do with the Islamic State — cyber-warfare is just the method used. If you don’t deal with the causes behind the Islamic State — such as in the Middle East — which have led to conflict and millions of people leaving their homes, the Islamic State will feed off that and you’ll always be chasing your tail.
Third, the Government should already be doing this with cyber. Our hospitals should already be safe from cyber-attacks, our electricity grid should already be safe. We should already have these plans in place — if the Government is saying, “We have to spend $2 billion to bring this up to scratch,” it should answer as to why this has not been done before.
