2011-09-14
By staff reporter
According to a Detica-sponsored report from Chatham House published this week, government best-practice around high-end cyber warfare defences has not yet permeated some areas of the UK’s critical national infrastructure (CNI).
Critical national infrastructure will increasingly need to adopt high-security cyber approaches, hitherto the preserve of military and national security, says BAE Systems Detica.
BAE Systems Detica says that if vital critical national infrastructure is to be protected at reasonable price, useability and efficiency, then real innovation is needed in the development of very high security cyber architectures for the private companies that run the lion’s share of the globe’s essential infrastructure services.
Detica contends that, whereas military and government have historically seen the real necessity of advanced security for their most sensitive information and operations, private sector organisations are faced with the need to balance cost and practicality of implementing an appropriate level of security for low probability, but high-risk attacks.
The report Cyber Security and the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure stresses the importance of cyber space to national security and notes that CNI enterprises should seek to take on greater responsibility and instil greater awareness about the nature of cyber risks across their organisation.
Henry Harrison, technical director of BAE Systems Detica said: “It’s vital that we protect our critical national infrastructure from attack, but one of the report’s principle conclusions is that there appears to be a less than coherent picture within CNI organisations of either the risk or potential impact of cyber attack. This is a particular challenge for low probability but potentially very high impact attacks that could affect the operation of our critical national infrastructure. The reality is that the private sector organisations which largely run CNI form the front line for this Tier 1 national security threat.
“Historically there has been very limited adoption within the private sector of the very high-end security approaches used to protect the world’s most sensitive information and systems. If our national security ambitions are to be realised, there is a pressing need to improve the useability and efficiency of these solutions in order to enable more widespread deployment.”
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