Top secret
GCHQ's warning about a ‘real and credible' threat from cyber attacks from unfriendly countries and crooks, has been branded ‘strategically timed' to protect its funding ahead of next week's spending review, one security expert told HEXUS.
Iain Lobban, the rarely-seen director of GCHQ said cyber attacks could damage Britain's economic future and warned that some nations, (Russia and China are reportedly near the top of his list) are using threats against other nations.
However, Sean Sullivan, security adviser for F-Secure, said: "Iain Lobban's comments seem strategically timed to protect GCHQ's funding ahead of the Comprehensive Spending Review announcement on October 20."
Lobban reportedly admitted that worms are causing grief to the government's systems which cop 20,000 malicious emails every month of which some 1,000 are thought to be deliberately targeted. Perhaps confirming many people's fears, he warned that such attacks present the government with a major challenge of keeping individuals' data safe.
Yet Sullivan has blasted the claim and said: "One could even argue they are over-hyped because the sort attacks or worms he refers to are very common and have been for some time.They are experienced by all sorts of different organisations failing to implement best security practices not just Government agencies."
According to F-Secure's figures, all sectors in the UK have experienced an increase in email attacks, including the military and Sullivan said 1,000 of these malicious emails ‘isn't unlikely'.
"However, the best defence is for organisations like GCHQ to spend money wisely on credible threats and implement best security practices, not on perceived, hyped threats driven by fear," he added.
Lobban also reportedly said that the US is setting up a Cyber Command to guard defence networks and launch its own cyber attacks.
Sullivan commented that the command (which does sound a bit like something from Star Wars) has spoken about worms ‘targeting' them but stressed that once again, they target everybody.
