Cyberattacks: EU Committee Report

Viscount Waverley Excerpts

Thursday 14th October 2010 Lords Chamber

[Viscount Waverley]

My Lords, I apologise for rising in the gap. One aspect of today’s debate that could be usefully underlined is the need to ramp up co-operation with countries and regions where we have strategic interests and which are themselves at risk, whether because of direct interests in energy supplies, for example, or indirectly through narcoterrorists funding a low-cost cyberattack capability, which would be cheap in relation to the mayhem that can be caused. The central Asia and Caucasus region contains ever growing strategic infrastructure that one way or another does or will serve Europe. The Baku-Ceyhan pipeline is one example. It is doubly more pressing as it is in exactly this region where, some say, the majority of cyberattacks originate.

Two immediate difficulties exist: resources within those regions to counter the problem and the lack of sufficient exchange of information among intelligence communities as a result of insufficient in-depth bilateral co-operation. I hope that an immediate effect of the Foreign Secretary’s visit to Moscow will be closer co-operation among our respective intelligence communities. That, in turn, would lead to Russia ceasing to apply pressure on opposite numbers within central Asia and the south Caucasus to be unco-operative with western interests. It should be remembered that central Asia and the south Caucasus are, after all, Russia’s backyard. The noble Lord, Lord Browne, mentioned Lisbon. Can the Minister inform us whether Russia has now agreed to attend? That country must be included in debate on international affairs. To improve the situation immediately, I urge the Minister to encourage the sending of representatives at Secretary of State level to Kazakhstan’s December heads of state OSCE summit in Astana, with a possibility of a one-day or two-day extension for bilaterals. This would be viewed as the United Kingdom working for mutual benefit.

I listened carefully to the remarks made by the noble Lord, Lord Jopling. The committee and the Home Office appear to agree that cybersecurity is a global phenomenon and requires globally co-ordinated action. The EU appears to be on track in combating the threat of cyberterrorism with its ENISA proposals of 30 September. However, more should be done on basic concepts and on a mid-term to long-term strategy, particularly in regard to an integrated approach including all major players. The Minister could be encouraged to ramp up the debate and implement initiatives at at least G20 level.

In conclusion, a simple analogy to reinforce the case for global endeavours is to compare the threat of cyberterrorism to the threat of the banking sector. We now know that one bank failing can have a catastrophic global impact. The same can apply to the world of cyberterrorism. I do not wish to appear alarmist, but I fear that, whereas suicide bombings have been the weapon of choice in certain quarters, carefully targeted cyberattacks will be the weapon in tomorrow’s world.