UK Treasury faces daily digital attacks
By Ashley Curtis
16/05/2011
Chancellor George Osborne has stated that the UK government receives numerous threats from "hostile intelligence agencies", with 20,000 harmful emails sent to the institution in 2010.
According to The Telegraph, Osborne made the comments at Google's Zeitgeist Conference in Hertfordshire.
At it, he stated that in one instance, a legitimate email relating to the G20 - sent to a number of countries - had been "followed up minutes later with an almost identical, hostile replica."
"During 2010, hostile intelligence agencies made hundreds of serious and pre-planned attempts to break into the Treasury's computer system. This makes the Treasury one of the most targeted departments across Whitehall," he added.
Osborne then highlighted the need for security barriers, such as systems management software, in order to ensure "security of personal data and financial information." With reference to the Sony Playstation Network breach, he outlined how "this age of digitised public services creates challenges alongside opportunities."
However, Rik Ferguson, a security insider, noted in the Guardian how knowing the origin of a virus or worm doesn't necessarily reflect who is behind an attack: "Our security services could analyse the code used in the attacks to figure out how sophisticated it is."
"But in all honesty the biggest issue with online criminality is the problem of online attribution - knowing where the control server for an attack is based doesn't necessarily tell you who is behind it," he added.
