Public-Private “fusion cell” created to save the UK from Cyber threats

A new scheme will be launched later today by the UK government with the aim of reducing cyber threats by encouraging information sharing between private firms and public sector organisations.

The programme follows a successful pilot scheme that was run in 2011, in which 80 companies took part from 5 key sectors of the economy: finance, defence, energy, telecoms and pharma.

This time round the full scheme will include 160 organisations, all of which will have access to the “fusion cell” which will allow them to share information that can be analysed by Mi5 or GCHQ analysts. The programme will be called “CISP” the Cyber Security Information Sharing Platform and will be launched by Francis Maude of the Cabinet Office in line with national cyber security strategy as a tool to help reach their aims of:

• Making Britain the best country in the world to do e-business
• Protecting critical components of the national infrastructure.

IT security experts are welcoming the launch with Graeme Stewart of McAfee saying: “Information sharing is imperative to countering cyber threats. As cyber crime itself is global in nature, the need for a strong public-private partnership is critical.”

Terry Greer-King of Check Point commented: “This is a key step forward for both Governments and business in fighting web attacks, and reducing their impact. It’s essential that organisations collaborate and share intelligence with each other to track emerging threats, mitigate their severity or block them before they cause damage. Fighting threats together is much more effective than fighting alone.”