From: Council on Foreign Relations
Alex Grigsby is the assistant director for the Digital and Cyberspace Policy program at the Council on Foreign Relations.
Two weeks ago, with much fanfare, the United Kingdom released a new strategy that sets out UK government’s approach to improving the country’s cybersecurity over the next five years. It follows the UK’s previous effort dating back to 2011, and allocates £1.9 billion ($2.36 billion) over five years, doubling the previous investment of £860 million ($1 billion). This newest five year plan has the usual fare. It identifies the threats and vulnerabilities facing the UK, creates three pillars using alliteration (defend, deter and develop), and is filled with government-speak that could have been ripped from The Thick of It or Veep (“we need to invest in proofing ourselves against future threats”).
The threats the UK identifies are not surprising. It singles out Russian-language organized cybercrime, state-sponsored threats, terrorist groups (although it caveats that terrorist groups are likely to prefer physical attacks over digital ones for the time being), hacktivists, and oddly, script kiddies. The strategy also points out the UK’s vulnerabilities, such as the proliferation of insecure internet of things devices, poor cyber hygiene, legacy and unpatched systems, and the availability of off-the-shelf hacking resources. These threats and vulnerabilities are not unique to the UK–every country connected to the internet faces identical or similar challenges.
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