Cyber crime among top UK threats

18 October 2010 Last updated at 07:24 ET <!-- Embedding the video player --> <!-- This is the embedded player component -->

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Home Secretary Theresa May: International terrorism and cyber attacks are key threats

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Attacks on computer networks are among the biggest threats to the UK, Theresa May has said ahead of the publication of a new National Security Strategy.

Cyber terrorism was a "new and growing" danger, the home secretary said.

The BBC has learned there will be new money to bolster cyber security, focused on protecting critical infrastructure and defence assets.

The strategy will form the background for Tuesday's Strategic Defence Review, with defence cuts of 8% expected.

The National Security Council, set up by David Cameron in May, is publishing an updated approach to national security which identifies 16 threats to the UK.

The most serious - which they are calling "Tier 1" - comprises acts of international terrorism, hostile computer attacks on UK cyberspace, a major accident or natural hazard such as a flu pandemic, or an international military crisis between states that draws in the UK and its allies.

Intelligence priority

Speaking ahead of the strategy's launch in the Commons on Monday afternoon, Mrs May said she was not prepared to rank these in order of gravity but acknowledged they were of a "different nature" to other potential threats.

On terrorism, she said the threat level to the UK had been at severe - which means an attack is likely - for "some time".

"We are facing a very serious threat from international terrorism... we must all be vigilant," she told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

Rather than focusing on different areas in isolation, she said the security strategy had looked at the overall picture "in the round" and as part of the exercise, officials had identified attacks on government and business IT systems as as a "new and growing threat".

The BBC's security correspondent Frank Gardner said ministers were likely to announce �500m of new money to bolster cyber security, amid evidence that hundreds of malicious e-mails were already being aimed at government computer networks each month.

This would combat concerns that terrorist groups might be able to hack into critical infrastructure such as air traffic control networks and over cases of "cyber espionage" where rogue groups or even foreign states seek to break into computer systems to obtain top secret information.

There would also be extra protection for online business transactions from fraud and theft.

Ahead of Wednesday's Spending Review, Mrs May said the Home Office had to "play its part" in cutting spending to deal with the deficit, stressing that the police could make savings without hitting officers on the beat by cutting bureaucracy and increased collaboration between forces.

While welcoming efforts to tackle cyber attacks, Labour - which developed the first national security strategy in 2008 - said the plan offered little new.

"The government seem to be producing a reheated security strategy to provide cover for a rushed defence review rather that producing a renewed and careful consideration of the UK's defence and security priorities," said shadow foreign secretary Yvette Cooper.

'Re-do' defence?

Two days away from the spending review, Defence Secretary Liam Fox has said personnel numbers in the armed forces will "fall a bit" in future but there would be no weakening of the UK's strategic position.

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Bill Gates: ''People depend on the reliability of the internet''

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The Treasury had wanted cuts of between 10% and 20% to the Ministry of Defence's budget, but it is understood that Mr Fox has negotiated this down to 8%.

The Conservative MP Bernard Jenkin, who is chairman of the Commons Public Administration Committee, said it was difficult to see how an effective National Security Strategy could be developed against the backdrop of cuts.

"We seem to be operating under the imperative of deficit reduction," he said.

"But, there's very little in what's being done now that reflects deep and sustained analysis about what sort of country we want to be in 10 or 20 years time."

In a new report, the cross-party committee said there was a lack of strategic thinking at the heart of government over security, defence and foreign policy and a tendency to "muddle through" rather than be forward thinking.

"And the SDSR [strategic defence and security review] is a case in point because the Ministry of Defence should have done the work, saying 'look, if we are going to have to live within a much smaller envelope, how do we completely re-do the way we do defence?'.

"Instead it's just been about 'what do we have to cut? What do we hang on to and what do we cut?'."

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