UK to launch new centre to advise countries on cyber security matters, says Foreign Secretary

William Hague told the Budapest Conference on Cyberspace that the Government would invest £2 million a year to provide the advice in the centre to countries that currently do not have either the systems or knowledge to defend against hackers.

"Some countries lack the infrastructure and expertise to police their cyberspace and we need to do more to increase the capabilities of others," Hague said in his speech. "Cyber criminals and terrorists should have no refuge online, just as they should have no sanctuary off-line."

"I can therefore announce today that the UK is developing a new Centre for Global Cyber-Security Capacity Building in the United Kingdom, and we will be investing £2m a year to offer countries independent advice on how to build secure and resilient cyberspace, improving co-ordination and promoting good governance online," he added. "This practical initiative will help close the gap between supply and demand for capacity building and to ensure we make better use of the skills and resources available internationally."

"Many nations simply do not yet have the defences or the resources to counter state-sponsored cyber attack. If we do not find ways of agreeing principles to moderate such behaviour and to deal with its consequences, then some countries could find themselves vulnerable to a wholly new strategic threat: effectively held to ransom by hostile states," he added.

Hague said that it has "never been easier to become a cyber criminal", citing that it is possible to buy "off-the-shelf malicious software, designed to steal bank details, for as little as £3,000". Hacking attacks threaten to expose business' research and development work, causing damage to the value of firms' intellectual property, he added. In one case earlier this year one "well-protected international company" had 100GB-worth of "sensitive intellectual property" information stolen from it as a result of a hacking attack, the Foreign Secretary revealed.

"If these [kind of] attacks are left unchecked they could have a devastating impact on the future earning potential of many major companies and the economic wellbeing of countries," Hague said.

Hague said that countries should avoid turning to censorship as a way of restricting individuals' access to particular online content. He said that countries that attempt to "suppress" how individuals engage with the internet "are erecting barricades against an unstoppable tide, and acting against their own long term economic interests and their security."

He called for countries, businesses and organisations to better co-ordinate their efforts in order to protect against and respond to cyber attacks. He restated seven principles he proposed at a cyber security conference in London last year as a "basis for more effective cooperation".

Those principles require that Governments "act proportionately in cyberspace and in accordance with international law", that everyone have the "ability to access cyberspace" and for the internet to be "open to innovation and the free flow of ideas, information and expression".

Individuals' privacy rights and the intellectual property rights of companies must also be respected and "proper protection" provided for, whilst there also needs to be a collective effort "to tackle the threat from criminals acting online", according to some of the principles Hague proposed.

"A great deal can be achieved through relatively simple measures such as improved crisis communications, greater cooperation between national computer emergency response teams and collaboration on tackling e-crime and responding to cyber attacks," he said.