Officials with GCHQ are said to be mulling a plan that would extend the UK government’s network security tools to private-sector ISPs. GCHQ director general for cyber security Ciaran Martin has been in Washington, DC, pitching the plan to arm the ISPs with firewall updates aimed at blocking off known bad actors. The project, said to be part of the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) headed up by Martin, is aimed at protecting businesses from attacks by sealing off those addresses previously associated with attacks. This will allow the public to be protected from malware or state-sponsored attacks that have already been spotted by GCHQ. Though characterised in press reports as another “Great Firewall,” the project appears to be almost entirely focused on catching cyber attacks, rather than gathering intelligence or censoring content.
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ORIGINAL SOURCE: The Register