MoD battled 1,000 cyberattacks in 2010, Fox says

The Ministry of Defence blocked and investigated more than 1,000 potentially serious cyberattacks in 2010, Liam Fox has said.

Defence secretary Liam Fox has said the Ministry of Defence blocked more than 1,000 cyberattacks last year. Photo credit: Conservative Party

In a speech at the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry Annual Defence Dinner on Tuesday, the defence secretary told representatives of UK businesses that between 2009 and 2010, security incidents more than doubled.

"Was this in Afghanistan? No — this was in cyber-space, and the target was the MoD," Fox said. "I and my senior colleagues are routinely alerted to incidents that could have had severe consequences if they'd not been stopped."

He went on to say that the government's systems are targeted by criminals, foreign intelligence services and "other malicious actors" that want to steal information.

Fox argued that success cannot be achieved by Whitehall alone as there are few boundaries between government, business and every individual internet user.

"We now see weekly reports of cyberattacks against businesses, institutions and networks used by people going about their daily lives. The cost to the UK economy of cybercrime is estimated to be in the region of £27bn a year and rising," Fox said. "These are attacks against the whole fabric of our society. When it comes to cybersecurity we must fight this battle together."

The defence secretary said that part of the government's response to malicious online attacks will be to act internationally, which includes an International Cyber Conference that will be held in London in November.

In May George Osborne revealed that HM Treasury faces daily "hostile" cyberattacks. The chancellor said that these were part of a large number of cyberattacks on government networks, which in total receive more than 20,000 malicious emails each month.

To deal with these attacks, the government has invested £650m in a new National Cyber Security Programme.

This story originally appeared on Guardian Government Computing.