More Questions on Cyber Security In House of Lords
Questions in the upper house yesterday from Chris Patten to Security Minister Lord West:
Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty’s Government whether the Office of Cyber Security will be fully operational by March 2010.
The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Home Office (Lord West of Spithead): The Office of Cyber Security was established in September 2009, and is already working in support of delivering the Cyber Security Strategy. Within the strategy it was felt sensible to plan for an initial operational capability – which included being staffed by approximately 20 people from different departments and agencies – by March 2010. They presently have 12 staff but are not waiting for an arbitrary initial operational capability; they are already making progress in their priority work areas. Other staff will be recruited over the remainder of the financial year.
Lord Patten: To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they have taken or will take through the European Union to improve its cyber security strategies.
Lord West: The UK has contributed valuable input over many years to the improvement of the elements of Cyber Security, both through ENISA (the European Network and Information Security Agency) and other EU fora. This work takes place under the broad Commission headings of Critical Information Infrastructure Protection and Telecommunications Resilience, as well as the European Programme for Critical Infrastructure Protection (known as EPCIP). Actions include collaborative efforts aimed at increasing European co-operation on policy to enhance cyber security, such as developing European priorities, principles and guidelines on long-term internet resilience and stability, as well as enhancing co-operation with industry.
The first answer reveals that OCS has appointed 12 out of ‘c.20‘ staff, which is new. Additionally, I can confirm from other sources that Graham Wright has definitely been appointed to OCS as Deputy Director as reported here before.
The second answer is evidently based on the work of the HoL enquiry on EU cyber policy (here and here), and corroborates the evidence they’ve heard so far.
