Labour calls for stronger rules on cyber threat
LABOUR is today calling for a clearer strategy on Britain’s defence and security, alongside ramped-up legal requirements for reporting cyber attacks.
Shadow defence secretary Vernon Coaker will say in a speech in London that there should be a more open discussion about the UK’s defence strategy, in the run-up to the next strategic defence and security review (SDSR), scheduled for autumn 2015. The last one was in 2010. “We must ensure that the review provides the long-term direction that UK defence and security requires – one that is fiscally realistic and strategically ambitious,” he will say.
Labour is calling for a legal requirement for private companies to report serious cyber-attacks threatening the UK’s national infrastructure.
It also wants the UK to provide more support for UN peacekeeping operations across the world.
“The 2010 SDSR identified cyber threats and the need for upstream capacity building abroad as some of the priorities for the future,” said defence secretary Philip Hammond.
“That is why hundreds of millions have been invested in these areas. After four years in opposition, Labour is calling for measures we are already implementing.”
The government partnered with nine defence and security companies last July to help combat cyber attacks.