Labour calls for Defence Cyber Security Charter

Yesterday, in a parliamentary debate I called on the Ministry of  Defence to introduce a cyber security charter for companies it works with.

Labour is calling on the government to ensure that every company working with the Ministry of Defence, regardless of its size or the scale of its work, signs up to a cyber security charter. This will ensure hackers can’t use small suppliers to get into the systems of the major defence companies or the MoD itself. The risks to Britain from cyber attacks are huge and growing. We need to do everything we can to protect against them.

The UK faces up to 1,000 cyber attacks every hour, which are estimated to cost £27 billion annually. Cyber attacks are now a constant reality, with government, the private sector and citizens all under sustained cyber attack from both hostile states and criminals. Maintaining effective cyber security and combating the growing threats must be a key objective for the government to ensure Britain’s defence and security.