Cyber security has long been a priority for CIOs, CTOs, and others in working in technology. But following a number of high profile attacks, and as IT becomes increasingly integral to everyday life, cyber is becoming a mainstream issue of concern, not just across the across the whole of the c-suite, but also among policy makers and wider society. New research released by the UK government last week found that 87% of small firms and 93% of large enterprises had experienced security breaches last year, with some attacks causing more than £1    million of damage.

Like many other countries, the UK has responded to the increasing cyber threat by developing a comprehensive national cyber security policy programme. The £650million, 4-year agenda includes actions to strengthen Britain’s cyber intelligence, defensive, and offensive capabilities; boost skills; and increase resilience in the private sector.  Continue Reading

The UK government identified cyber security as a key area of focus and new investment and in 2011 announced a budget of £650 million to shore up defenses in the UK.  So, after two years let’s examine where it’s been spent?

Here’s some of the good things that have resulted from the investment

-          SOCA took down 36 website domains that sold credit card data – this is probably a very small tip of the iceberg.

-          15,000 fraud websites were suspended

-          GCHQ announced a scheme to help companies deal with cyber attacks and give guidance on response to a compromise

-          8 universities have been given the Academic Centre for Excellence in Cyber Security and Research

-          CISP, the Cyber security Information Sharing Scheme

However, there are areas that need further investment

-          60% of the budget was spent ‘detect and defend’ – We hope that ‘response’ is also a large portion of this investment although it’s not  very clear Continue Reading

In his keynote at EMCworld 2012  in Las Vegas, Pat Gelsinger proposed a tongue-in-cheek equation for the “physics of information technology”.  He also used analogies drawn from the world of physics to talk about the transformations that are occurring in information technology — describing the transition from applications to data as a shift in the center of gravity, as well as discussing data in terms of concepts like structure, mass, velocity and half-life.

Pat’s analogy set me Continue Reading