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National Security Strategy

My Lords, I thank the noble Lord for his Statement. However, does he agree that measures to address the threat to states from cyber attack have to be global and all-inclusive? I hope to heaven that he does agree with that. If he does, is it not quite extraordinary that the only short passage in his relatively long Statement referring to the global impact and the global measures that are needed is where it says that the Government will, ""develop international law and doctrines of national defence in cyberspace, working with other countries"?" That is only a tiny fragment dealing with the essential urgency of a global approach to these matters. One cannot help but come to the conclusion that the Government’s approach to this, once again, is all talk and no action. The Minister has been boasting about what the Government have done but perhaps I may ask him two questions. First, if the Government regard this massive threat as urgent, why has the Council of Europe’s Draft Convention on Cyber-crime, which the United Kingdom signed seven and a half years ago in November 2001, not yet been ratified? What could the reason be for that? Secondly, NATO’s Cyber Defence Management Authority has been operative since April last year. The United States has signed up to it but the United Kingdom has not. All this adds up to the irresistible view that the Government have spent these past years half asleep in relation to these matters. What are they going to do to harness the serious threat of cybercrime on a global scale?