Cyber is the only area of the National Security Strategy to show efficient evidence of defence spending.
According to the Government’s six-monthly Strategic Defence and Security Review (SDSR), funding decisions on conventional defence and cyber capabilities must reflect the need for deterrence.
The report claimed that after cyber security was deemed to be a tier one risk in 2010, and with a 20 year timescale for the National Security Strategy, spending on climate change, flooding and cyber may be required to rise substantially above inflation, particularly once infrastructure costs for adaptation work begin.
Margaret Beckett MP, chair of the Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS), said that as part of the next National Security Strategy, the Government should look at how spending in security-related areas is likely to have to change over the next 20 years, but cyber is the only area that shows clear evidence for Government spending.
Beckett said: “We are very keen to see the next National Security Strategy acting as a truly useful document for cross-Government security planning, particularly as a tool to allow for flexible policy, taking into account potential developments in domestic and international affairs.
“We have urged the Government to engage with a range of people – experts, the public and our Committee – when preparing the National Security Strategy, and also to take an active role in public engagement, to ensure that the British public understand the thinking behind our national security strategy.”
Mark Brown, executive director in the Cyber Security & Business Resilience at EY, told IT Security Guru: “The National Security Strategy report reaffirms the decision of the UK Government to recognise cyber security and organised crime as a “Tier One” national risk. The ongoing reporting of security breaches both nationally and internationally continues to demonstrate the clear and present danger to organisations across both public and private sector from cyber threats.
“The UK national cyber security strategy has therefore provided a proactive vehicle for Government to engage with business leaders across the UK and globally to raise awareness of the threat from cyber crime. The recognition within the National Security Strategy report that spending on cyber crime will continue to rise at levels above inflation reflects the mood across private sector, where spending by organisations also continues to rise.”
