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Tech

George Osborne Said 'Cyber' 134 Times in His Speech at GCHQ

The UK has gone full-cyber.
TK

The UK has gone full-cyber. In a speech at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne laid out plans for more offensive and defensive capabilities for law enforcement and spies, particularly in response to a perceived cyber threat from ISIS.

Echoing recent comments from politicians in the US, the focus was on cybersecurity. In all, Osborne said "cyber" 134 times during his just-under-45-minute-long speech.

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"Our commitment to spending two percent GDP on defence means we can invest in a military that is cyber trained, cyber secure, and cyber enabled, with the ability to fight in every domain of future conflicts," Osborne, who also chairs the "government's committee on cyber," said in one section.

Osborne claimed that ISIS wants to attack the UK's infrastructure through a "cyber attack." In turn, that means the government will have to tackle the group's "cyber threat," which is "one of the many cyber threats we are working to defeat."

He continued with plans to increase spending on cyber security up to £1.9 billion ($2.8 billion) by 2020, and to open a National Cyber Centre, which "will be home to the country's first dedicated 'cyber force.'"

Education got a mention too. An "amitious new cyber skills programme" was laid out, which would identify "young people with cyber talent", and encourage them to get into various "cyber careers," and others to pursue "cyber apprenticeships."

All of this is part of the upcoming National Cyber Security Plan, one aim of which is to ensure the UK remains "at the cutting edge of the global cyber economy," according to a government press release.

The government also has a National Cyber Security Strategy and a National Cyber Security Programme. Rosa Pilcher, a Home Office spokesperson, confirmed in an email that these are separate initiatives.

The reality of our world is that everything—education, security, the economy, health-care—is now intimately related to the internet, computing, and the skills needed to leverage those systems to best effect. Today, the division between "cyber" and anything else is almost meaningless.

"Certain principles remain true in cyberspace as they are true about security in the physical world," Osborne said at one point.

He's right. But maybe he should get another script writer.