Cybersecurity: Encryption
Debate between Lord McFall of Alcluith and Baroness Shields
Baroness Shields
The noble Earl raises a very important point. Fortunately, encryption technology is moving on to the point at which even military-grade encryption is available in easy format. We will look into that and make those recommendations in the guidelines.
Lord McFall of Alcluith (Lab)
My Lords, it is universally acknowledged that UK banks’ infrastructure is in a very poor state; some 90% of their IT spending is on legacy issues—namely, keeping the old systems going. One consequence is that there is an incomplete view of the customer. There was a dramatic example of that last week when Deutsche Bank put £6 billion into a single customer’s account. For the sake of clarity I should inform the House that that was not my account, but something needs to be done.
Baroness Shields
I am not familiar with that particular case but I wish I were. It is important to acknowledge that substantial mistakes can be made and that cybersecurity is at that level of risk. Day-to-day operation is very important to consider.