UK’s Cyberdefence Infrastructure Lags Behind U.S. Cousins

It was June 2009 when UK announced in the first time its Cyber Security Strategy. The Cyber Security Strategy sets out the U.K. Government’s plans to establish two new organisations, both of which will be established in September 2009, and will be operational by the end of March 2010:

• An Office of Cyber Security (OCS) to provide strategic leadership for and coherence across Government. The OCS will establish and oversee a cross-government programme to address priority areas in pursuit of the UK’s strategic cyber security objectives.
• A Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) that will bring together existing functions: to actively monitor the health of cyber space and co-ordinate incident response; to enable better understanding of attacks against UK networks and users; and to provide better advice and information about the risks to business and the public.

According to a parliamentary answer of Baroness Crawley the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC), based near GCHQ in Cheltenham, is delayed by lack of staff:

“The Office of Cyber Security (OCS) is allocated £130,000 funding for FY 09-10, while the Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) has not been allocated a budget for this fiscal year. OCS and CSOC staff costs are being borne by parent departments, with IT set-up costs being borne by a combination of the Cabinet Office (OCS) and GCHQ (CSOC), as host organisation, as well as contributing agencies. The OCS is predicted to have 18 personnel allocated by early 2010. CSOC expects to have a staff of 19 by 10 March (the centre’s initial operating capability—or IOC—date).”