Coalition seeks business insight into cyber crime

Cyber criminals

Cyber crime is at the top of the Government's security agenda, but ministers are looking for advice from the private sector on how to tackle it.

During the Homeland and Border Security 2010 conference held in London this week, Baroness Pauline Neville-Jones said the Government needed to tap into resources in industry to provide the best information assurance and cyber security for the UK.

"The next stage of our work in cyber security will be inviting the participation of business in the development of strategy," said the Home Office security minister.

"We perceive cyber security in partnership with the private sector as being crucial to [our] success."

The Government will not just be consulting large enterprises. British small and medium businesses will also have a vital role to play.

"Very often SMEs produce innovation that can be turned into a big product or big export, or influence," Baroness Neville-Jones added.

Todd Chambers, chief marketing officer (CMO) at security firm Courion, praised the new plans.

"We thoroughly support the new Government pledging to work closely with the private sector on developing and implementing a cyber-security policy and welcome the increased focus on a very important issue for all UK businesses, as exemplified by the numerous high profile data breach cases in recent months," he said.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.