Foreign Secretary William Hague has announced that a global centre for cybersecurity is to be opened at Oxford University. Under the proposal, the UK government will provide £1m to fund the centre for the next two years.

The Global Centre for Cyber Security and Capacity Building will work to help countries develop comprehensive plans to deal with cyber risk. Mr Hague says the new centre will act as "a beacon of expertise" in the sector.

Commenting on the announcement, Wieland Alge, IT security pioneer, inventor of one of the most robust corporate firewalls and VP and General Manager EMEA, Barracuda Networks says: “The government's announcement that a global centre for cybersecurity will be opened at Oxford University shows that cyber threats are a clear and present danger not only on home shores but the world over.

“The Global Centre for Cyber Security will create a collaborative bank of knowledge giving countries a greater understanding of past attacks and the present threat landscape. The sharing of attacks, vulnerabilities and damage is essential to develop countermeasures to protect critical infrastructure and keep the good guys a step ahead.

“As the number of cyber threats increase it will become even more important for countries, as well as the public and private sector to protect themselves adequately from attacks which can leave businesses paralysed. Teaching business’ workforces the necessary skills and technology to tackle online threats will prevent data from being found in the wrong hands,” he adds.

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