Cyber security on par with counter terrorism

The head of GCHQ has warned that maintaining security against cyber attacks is now of equal importance to combatting terrorism.

Jeremy Fleming, the head of the intelligence monitoring service, said that, after nearly 600 ‘significant’ cyber attacks required a national response in the last year, GCHQ was prioritising cyber intelligence as much as countering terrorism.

Writing in the Daily Telegraph, Fleming said that the UK's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has a ‘world-leading programme to reduce the incidence and impact of cyber-attacks without users even noticing’.

He wrote: “If GCHQ is to continue to help keep the country safe, then protecting the digital homeland - keeping our citizens safe and free online - must become and remain as much part of our mission as our global intelligence reach and our round-the-clock efforts against terrorism.”