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Cyber Security

: Secure networks are absolutely vital, not only to ensure that data held by public and private bodies are not compromised or lost, but to build the element that is essential in any commercial or financial market: consumer confidence. If consumers do not have confidence in their ability to transact online business in safety, they will not transact online business at all. The Government take such issues seriously. Although my Department's responsibilities focus primarily on the business community, I can outline progress in a range of activities across Government. The strategic focus of Government is co-ordinated through the Cabinet Office. Its primary concern is to ensure that the Government's information assets are properly secured. It is recognised as of vital importance that work in Government is informed by and informs developments in the private sector. For that reason, we see the question of communication between Government and business and end users as vital. There is now a sense of ownership for the issue among Departments, and a recognised community of senior risk owners who are responsible for promoting best practice. The Cabinet Office is also taking a far more forward-looking approach to future risks and acts as the Government's customer for expert work in devising common-good solutions to emerging information security problems. The budget for the vital investment in software and hardware to protect Government information in the current spending round amounts to some £30 million. The Cabinet Office has also tried to simplify basic security requirements for the entire public sector by producing guidelines on secure e-government. They are supported by a new initiative that will help by the simple method of verifying security claims made for a product. All parts of Government make informed purchases of information technology. All in all, I believe that the importance of cyber security is now embedded in Government thinking. Hon. Members will have noted that it was one of the key features highlighted in the recent ““Transformational Government Enabled by Technology”” strategy paper. Government can effectively be moved online only if it is consistently available and, as I said before, has the confidence of its users. My second point is about the work that we have done to protect our critical national infrastructure. With the emergence of the threat of a remote attack on information systems, the Government have placed particular importance on protecting the systems that are critical to maintaining the energy, communications, water, transport and government systems that are crucial to our way of life. For that reason, in 1999 the Government developed a policy on protecting those systems and created the National Infrastructure Security Co-ordination Centre, NISCC, to implement that policy. NISCC can draw on nearly 100 experts from agencies and works in close partnership with the police and other parts of Government that have an interest in protecting the critical information infrastructure.