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Written question asked by Chi Onwurah (Labour) on Wednesday, 7 December 2016, in the House of Commons. It was due for an answer on Monday, 12 December 2016 (named day). It was answered by Matt Hancock (Conservative) on Monday, 12 December 2016 on behalf of the Department for Culture, Media and Sport.

Internet: Cybersecurity

Question

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps she is taking to encourage secure web programming among web developers, software and hardware vendors and site administrators.

Answer

As outlined in the National Cyber Security Strategy, the Government is undertaking an extensive cyber security skills programme to ensure the UK has a self-sustaining pipeline of talent providing the skills the economy needs. As part of this programme, we have ensured all Further Education digital courses have a mandatory cyber security component, while Computing Science degrees accredited by the British Computer Society must now include comprehensive teaching on cyber security and have generated some material to support this. This is helping to ensure the current and future generation of IT graduates and professionals have the skills needed for secure programming when developing web-based products.

As part of our cyber skills programme, we are also undertaking extensive work in schools, with apprentices and helping non-cyber professionals, ensuring the UK workforce continues to have the skills needed to keep the digital economy secure. In addition, the Government works closely with industry to promote the need for good cyber security practices. The National Cyber Security Strategy makes it clear we are building a secure Internet and sets out an objective for “the majority of online products and services coming into use [to] become ‘secure by default’ by 2021.

Secondary information

Type
Written question
Reference
56443
Session
2016-17
Subjects
Software Internet Cybersecurity
Link
View this Written question on www.parliament.uk