Foreign Secretary William Hague addressed the London Conference on Cyberspace in London on November 1. For cyber-security, we need ‘rules of the road’, he told the event.
Online crime, he warned, is growing exponentially. As for the private sector, he warned of rising costs to business from cyber crime, barriers to trade and commerce, companies being held to ransom by hacktivists, and the theft of intellectual property sapping prosperity and innovation and driving investment away from countries whose systems are seen to be insecure. He said: “Across the globe there are people and groups seeking to turn our personal information into cash, or to wreak havoc on the net to express political grievances. In Europe and North America, one single denial of service tool designed by hacktivists was downloaded by more than 75,000 computer users earlier this year. Militaries, citizen services, credit card companies and businesses like Amazon were attacked. More than six million unique types of new malware were detected by industry in the first three months of this year.
“As all our societies become more wired-up and technologies converge, the scope for malignant activity will widen alongside the many advantages, whether it is the theft of intellectual property or the spread of malware and viruses. It will become harder to protect our users or to prevent our defences from being swamped.
For the full speech visit –
