LONDON (Reuters) ‐ Cyber attacks, terrorism, inter‐state conflict and natural hazards are the top threats to British security, officials said on Monday announcing a new National Security Strategy.
The strategy comes a day before a major military review expected to outline deep spending cuts. Following are reactions to the statement:
IAN GODDEN, CHAIR OF UK TRADE BODY AEROSPACE, Defense & SECURITY (ADS) GROUP.
"We welcome the strategy and the incorporation of wider security aspects alongside the defense elements (of the review). "Security and resilience is a sector that can also benefit the country's economy. The UK has strong industrial capabilities and there is great potential for these to produce increased
exports and an expanded industrial base in the UK. "Industry and government share the goal of a major uplift in the performance of UK security
exports with the government playing a similar role in security to that played in relation to defense exports."
WILLIAM HAGUE, BRITISH FOREIGN SECRETARY
(In answer to a SKY News question on whether Britain's standing and military status would be adversely affected by the cuts)
"I don't think so, because we will remain a major military power. We will continue to have the third or fourth biggest defense budget in the world...an independent nuclear deterrent, formidable intelligence agencies. We will continue to have some very sophisticated, ships, submarines, planes and an army with one of the best reputations in the world. " ... will we have to cut back in some areas? ... yes we will but it will not prevent us from
assuring our own security and helping the security of our allies."
ANDREW THONIS, CEO, Defense TECHNOLOGY FIRM COHORT
"We welcome the fact that the government has recognized the need to invest in cyber security, intelligence and counter terrorism, three areas where we have allocated increased resources. "To take just one example, the emergence of the Stuxnet virus earlier this month starkly illustrates that failing to employ secure cyber defenses could have alarming consequences in the 'real' world. This is a matter not just for government but for all users of information and control systems."
ALAN CALDER, CEO, INFORMATION SECURITY COMPANY, IT GOVERNANCE
"Finding the 'open door' of an insecure application is the most crucial step in any website attack. I'm expecting a sharp rise in this mode of entry by cyber‐criminals."
CHARLES HEYMAN, EDITOR, THE ARMED FORCES OF THE UNITED KINGDOM (ANNUAL PUBLICATION)
"Counter insurgency is terribly important but you can't base almost all of your fighting strategy on counter insurgency. A lot of that counter insurgency can be handled by armed police. "We have to retain the capacity to fight a major conventional war in our own defense. It's much easier to take a battalion that's trained for conventional war and to turn them into counter insurgency experts. "But it's very difficult to get counter insurgency experts into armored vehicles, to train for conventional warfare. It takes a long time. "A major cyber attack could happen to us at any time. It's by far the most serious threat that we face. We can deal with natural disasters ... but we are now so wedded to the internet, to the wired‐up community that that is where we are really vulnerable. "A cyber Pearl Harbor is something that can bring down a modern state almost immediately before it can get its defenses mobilized. "An attack on Britain would almost certainly result in the complete shutdown of mobile phones and a complete shutdown of television and radio networks."
ALEX ASHBOURNE‐WALMSLEY, Defense ANALYST
"Looking at the four main threats, it was quite interesting that the idea of military crises between states was ranked higher than terrorism affecting the UK, but at the same time alarming to see them flag as part of the core strategy Northern Ireland which had gone off the radar for the last few years. "The test will really come tomorrow and to what extent the government is prepared to fund these four themes. If the UK is meant to be intervening in a major crisis or dealing with a attack on cyber or natural hazard, and wants a flexible and adaptable strategy, then this implies that you spend more on defense rather than less."
ZAFAR KHAN, ANALYST, SOCIETE GENERALE
"It's pretty much areas one would have expected them to highlight. Their concerns are really cyber terrorism and rogue states. "What's going to be interesting is what kind of reductions we see over the next four or five years and the number seems to settling around 8 percent, that's a little bit better than most had feared because we had read it could be between 10 and 20."
BOB ROLLINGS, GROUP SECRETARY, PUBLIC AND COMMERCIAL SERVICES UNION
"David Cameron is callously using his 'admiration' for our armed forces as a spiteful tool to attack public services. The public will not be fooled into believing that cuts have to be made when there are uncollected taxes in excess of 120 billion pounds ($190.6 billion)." "Whatever cuts are announced in the Ministry of Defense and in the wider public sector are cuts too far. In the MoD, we will see short‐term financial thinking replace generations of experience and knowledge."
KEVIN COYNE, NATIONAL OFFICER, UNITE
"Thousands of skilled jobs are at risk in defense maintenance, as is the apprenticeship programme for the next generation of skilled employees."
"This government's short‐term view policy of 'cuts, cuts, and more cuts' will be a body blow for these skilled jobs, so vital in ensuring that Britain has a defense strategy that is coherent and will actually deliver the logistical support in a joined‐up fashion." "Hundreds of skilled fire fighters and trained civilian ground staff will lose their jobs in, mainly, rural communities which will have a devastating knock‐on impact to local economies. RAF bases will also be closed."