Today, 25th April 2009, the UK government announced the deployment of a new computer security defence organisation with a mission to protect these islands from cyber attack by foreign countries and terrorist groups. This organisation will deploy all the latest advances in
antivirus software and other resources in order to detect and defeat and pre-emptive attack.
This new group will be based at Government Communications Head Quarters (GCHQ) at Cheltenham in Gloucestershire. The new centre is to be called the Cyber Security Operations Centre. The team, who are referred to as the cyber forensics team, will monitor the internet in real time and will analyse all potential attacks and develop appropriate defences. Their role is not exclusively defensive, for they are also developing new ways to counterattack cyber terrorists. These will add to an already extensive arsenal of weapons that are available to the team for deployment against terrorist groups such as Al Qaeda.
The government minister in charge of this operation is Lord West and in a recent speech he reiterated the government views that certain terrorist groups are already making full use of the web for recruiting new members and that they use advanced encryption methods for internet communications. These groups are now going one step further, and are beginning to use virus and denial of service attacks on government organisations, businesses and banks.
The threat of cyber attacks is not exclusively from terrorist organisations, as organised crime is making increasing use of the internet to blackmail and otherwise extract money from individuals and organisations.
Hostile nations also pose serious cyber threats. Both Russia and China have launched cyber offensives against the UK, though the government believes that these have not been successful in penetrating government computers or obtaining secret information. Knowing how careful the UK government have been with secret information of late what else can one do but believe them?
If you are not one hundred percent secure in your belief that our government will successfully protect you from cybercrime, then you are advised to ensure that your antivirus software is up to date.
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