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UK Launches Dedicated Cyber Security Agency

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the bet-they-get-free-foil-hats dept.

Jack Spine writes "The UK government is launching an office dedicated to cyber attack and defence. The Office of Cyber Security will focus on protecting Britain's IT infrastructure, and will be similar to the US Cyber Command model. While the Pentagon Cyber Command will be lead by the NSA, the UK Cyber Security Operations Centre, which will coordinate UK cyber efforts, will be based at GCHQ in Cheltenham."

15 of 60 comments (clear)

  1. Thought Police? by xdor · · Score: 2

    Will this department handle weeding out dissenters or is that a different section?

    1. Re:Thought Police? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 5, Funny

      When the Thought Police are knocking on your door, think "I'm not home".

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    2. Re:Thought Police? by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Given that it's run by GCHQ, that will probably be some other department. GCHQ is full of competent people and manages to be a lot more successfully apolitical than other parts of the security service. Probably because they already know all of the elected politicians' dirty secrets. These are the guys who invented RSA decades before it was first published, not the guys who leave briefcases full of classified documents on trains.

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    3. Re:Thought Police? by hughk · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Funnily enough, I have met some people who worked for GCHQ. They are very competent, they do not talk directly about their work but sometimes you may end up a conversation where they may believe you are in a similar line of business and may drop the odd comment that makes you think they work in the 'doughnut'. It has a problem in that they are limited by UK civil servant salaries and that it is probably the most secretive of UK organisations in that it is heavily compartmentalised. The guys who invented public-key cryptography before Diffie-Hellman and RSA were limited by these walls and didn't realise that it could be commercially interesting.

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  2. The good guys using DDoS? by Fzz · · Score: 4, Insightful
    From TFA:

    The government will develop information systems to allow it to launch denial-of-service attacks and to spy on chosen targets, said the official. "We will have a whole range of offensive capabilities, including distributed denial-of-service," said the official. "DDoS is not a first response -- we definitely need graduated responses."

    You might have thought it would be better to fund development of mechanisms to prevent or mitigate DDoS attacks, rather than rely on using them. The bad guys will always be able to command more bots than any legal response could.

    1. Re:The good guys using DDoS? by janwedekind · · Score: 2, Insightful

      You might have thought it would be better to fund development of mechanisms to prevent or mitigate DDoS attacks, rather than rely on using them. The bad guys will always be able to command more bots than any legal response could.

      You also might have thought it would be better to prevent Microsoft Windows rather than using it. But I guess it's too late in both cases because the stuff is owned, licensed, and controlled by third parties.

  3. Re:Freshen Ya Drink, Govna? by Hal_Porter · · Score: 2, Funny

    Fixed Penalty Notice for Trolling

    £100

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  4. We just do... by EddyPearson · · Score: 3, Insightful

    ...what the US tells us to, don't we?

    *sigh*

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    1. Re:We just do... by elrous0 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Tell me, is there anything in your life you DON'T blame the U.S. for?

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    2. Re:We just do... by L4t3r4lu5 · · Score: 5, Funny

      Celine Dion.

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    3. Re:We just do... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Not sure why you're kidding. There's a lot of that kind of thing going on between the UK and US governments. Typically, someone on one side of the pond has a moderately good idea. Someone on the other side takes it to its logical conclusion. Someone back on the first side takes it a bit further. Then, they harmonise their efforts by taking it to ridiculous extremes.

      It's fun to blame Americans for everything (and, let's face it, they are so easy to bait), but often we're as much to blame for their stupid behaviour as we are for theirs. Take the Iraq war fiasco, for example. The US and UK intelligence services met up, and admitted to each other that they didn't really have much evidence. Both sides went back and said to their superiors something along the lines of 'we don't have much evidence, but they've got this and we think they've got some more serious evidence that they don't want to share with us for national security reasons'. These then made it into reports to politicians. A few years later, they both realised that both sides were telling the truth (unheard of in intelligence circles) and they really didn't know anything.

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  5. Re:So pretty much the same... by digitalchinky · · Score: 3, Interesting

    There are 5 of these agencies, they all share information. Expect other countries to follow along with the same types of press release. In practical terms, these agencies are already viewed as the leading authorities on this topic anyway. They each have many hundreds of domestic customers, and their public websites are indicative of them providing information of this nature when requested. These particular press releases are likely naught more than political maneuvering anyway. Probably just to 'remind' a particular foreign government or two that they are on top of the game.

    CSE (Canada)
    DSD (Australia)
    GCHQ (UK)
    GCSB (New Zealand)
    NSA (USA)

  6. Naughty boys by PhilHibbs · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Lord West:

    "You need youngsters who are deep into this stuff... If they have been slightly naughty boys, very often they really enjoy stopping other naughty boys," he said.

  7. Re:So pretty much the same... by poetmatt · · Score: 2, Interesting

    I wonder if this bears a ton of significance considering the timing of the US equivalent being appointed ?

  8. Re:Thankfully the UK,... by TheRaven64 · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Lucky bstrds and their "1mbps Top Tier High-Speed(tm)" ADSL network

    My mother, living in the middle of nowhere in rural England gets 1Mb/s ADSL. Those of us nearer cities get a lot more. I'm on 10Mb/s (closer to 8.8 in practice), with my ISP offering speeds up to 50Mb/s. Most cities also have 24Mb/s ADSL2.

    I think you are confusing network infrastructure with government projects. Typically, an IT project in the UK follows this process:

    1. Open for bids.
    2. Appoint EDS because they have the most experience in government IT contracts.
    3. EDS goes over budget.
    4. EDS fails to deliver anything.
    5. EDS adds another entry to the list of government projects they've completed for entry with the next bid.
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