UK centre to be global cybersecurity hub
The UK is backing a centre at the University of Oxford which will advise governments on how to achieve "effective cybersecurity".
The Global Centre for Cyber Security Capacity Building, based at the Oxford Martin School at University of Oxford will be funded by £500,000 a year from the government with the aim of putting the UK "at the forefront of cyber policy development", said foreign secretary William Hague.
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Sadie Creese, professor of cybersecurity, will head the new centre and said it aims to define global priorities for "cybersecurity capacity building" and help identify opportunities for support and international development to ensure the web "can continue to grow and innovate in support of well-being, human rights and prosperity for all".
Francis Maude, minister for cybersecurity in the Cabinet Office, said this includes having comprehensive national programmes and the policies, cooperation, skills and workforce, technology and expertise to tackle online threats, adding: "The range and depth of capacity required here and in other countries is considerable".
The UK's National Security Strategy categorised cyber attacks as a 'tier one' threat to national security - alongside international terrorism, and warns that 93 percent of large corporations and 76 percent of small businesses reported a cyber breach in the past year.
It is spending £2m a year from its National Cyber Security Programme to support a global efforts to raise cybersecurity. "In cyberspace, we are all interdependent and often only as secure as the weakest link. All countries need the capacity to tackle cyber threats to protect their own and others' online interests," said the Foreign Office, in a statement.