back to article UK.gov to create central cybersecurity agency

Secret operations currently carried out by parts of the intelligence and security services will be centralised in Whitehall as part of an ongoing major review of cybersecurity, according to a report. The Cabinet Office is due to publish the UK's version of Barack Obama's cybersecurity stategy before the summer Parliamentary …

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  1. TeeCee Gold badge
    Stop

    So, this job.

    It would entail nicking the interesting work from yer serious spooks then?

    Turf wars are all well and good. But when the opposition are by profession devious, underhand, shady and equipped with a healthy disregard for fair play there can only be one result.

  2. Tony Paulazzo

    Erm

    >Officials also fear attacks from China<

    Which is why they're allowing BT to use Chinese infrastructure?

  3. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    does

    Does anyone find it odd that the Labour party are so eager to appoint "Czars" for a start we already have a monarch - we don't need anymore, particularly ones selected by the Government.

    Also it's a term I relate to autocrats and people who on occasion do things like shoot lots of their own citizens.

    What's wrong with Head or Manager or Director?

  4. Tony S

    So....

    "Currently, the Ministry of Defence, Home Office, MI5, MI6 and GCHQ share responsibility for protecting critical UK online communications"

    Which generally means that when things go wrong, they can all deny that it's their responsibilty!

    However, I'm not sure how much they actually protect anyway - as far as I can see, none of them actually get involved in the management, planning or administration of any of the infra structure. At most, they monitor what is happening, and it appears that mostly happens well after the event.

    Perhaps with a single body, some of the issues might be addressed? (altho' I doubt it)

  5. Ted Treen
    Black Helicopters

    Don't worry...

    'Cos nothing, nichts, nul, nada, zero that has been centralised to Whitehall, or had a "Czar" appointed by this unreal set of incompetent bastards we have in place of a proper government has ever worked, or had the slightest effect.

    Spin, spin & more spin.

    Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose

  6. Richard IV
    Coat

    Czars

    Hopefully, they're called Czars because when things go spectacularly wrong, they and their families will be rounded up and shot.

    I for one hope that it will be called the Office for Sysadministrative Affairs.

  7. Fred Flintstone Gold badge

    @ So, this job

    "But when the opposition are by profession devious, underhand, shady and equipped with a healthy disregard for fair play there can only be one result."

    Yup - given the criteria above, there is really no other option that handing the post to a recently dismissed New Labour Minister.

    As long as it comes with an expense account that cannot be disclosed in the name of "national security".

    Fish, barrel, aim..

  8. MinionZero
    Stop

    Ever more fear and control... But for who's gain?

    Give us more control and we will protect you. Give us control and we will stop people exploiting you. Give us control and you will be safe. Control is safety. If you oppose control you must oppose safety. If you oppose control you must want to exploit others. To harm others. You are the enemy. We fear your kind. You must be controlled. Your lives are better when you are controlled. Our lives are better when you are controlled. We are in control of you. We only want what is best for you. If you don't trust us you must want to oppose our safety. If you don't trust us you must want to oppose our control.

    Feel safe citizen. Control is safety. Fear is a warning of danger. Uncertainty is the risk of danger. Doubt is the possibility of danger. We fear danger. We need to know who to control. We need to know who is a danger. A danger to us being in control. A danger to our position of power of being in control. A danger to us. We fear others in control of us. We fear others in control of us and because we fear others in control of us you all need to give us more control.

    ... Fear fear fear.

    The Internet is the biggest danger to their continued control they have ever faced and they know it because people are finally seeing and learning what the people in power are really like and how they think. The Internet is a source of freely shared ideas and that can undermine their control and as always they show how clearly they are ultimately driven by fear. Sharing ideas can hurt their control, just as the expenses claims showed up so well.

    Yet if they gain control of the Internet then they keep showing they want to control others, so they prove through their actions they don't want a fair world. They fear a fair world where they are not in control. They want to be in control ultimately for their own gain. But they want us to believe their endless FUD so we give them ever more control.

    We have a minority of greedy control freaks on every side of us in every country, each trying to control us their way ultimately for their gain. Its like the human race is stuck in an endless game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Whats the ultimate point of this game? ... The human race is being forced along by a minority of scared greedy control freaks endlessly selling fear so they can gain ever more control.

  9. Nebulo
    Thumb Down

    Great.

    Another bunch of unelected, faceless, "devious, underhand, shady " bastards screwing things up in the name of their imaginary "security". Just what we need.

  10. Dennis
    Boffin

    Re: So....

    "as far as I can see, none of them actually get involved in the management, planning or administration of any of the infra structure"

    Given that most of the infrstructure is owned an operated by private companies how much involvement by these agencies is possible. Advice and guidance is provided, but there's no way to compel businesses to take precautions. http://www.cpni.gov.uk/

    Even simple business continuity is optional. We already see networks that can't cope with iPlayer .... and users want this. Who will pay for networks that will survive a terrorist bomb? Or even just an errant drill in the Olympic Village?

  11. Michael Fremlins

    Another government agency

    Jobs for the friends of those in government. The client state grows ever bigger.

  12. Sillyfellow
    Unhappy

    goodbye freedom

    will the last one.....

    click.

  13. Neoc
    Happy

    Jim Hacker...

    Ah, "Yes, [Prime] Minister". So apt.

    But surely then, "Cyber Tsar" should be "Cyber Supremo". And wasn't there a National Database in the episode "A Right To Know"? ^_^

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