Cyber-security Debate

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Department: Cabinet Office

Cyber-security

Julian Huppert Excerpts
Tuesday 24th March 2015

(9 years, 7 months ago)

Commons Chamber
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Lord Maude of Horsham Portrait Mr Maude
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I happened to be visiting GCHQ shortly after my right hon. Friend made those remarks. The people who work at GCHQ do fantastic work—it is a centre of brilliant expertise and knowledge; they do difficult work away from the public gaze, and any comments that seem to undermine what they do in the service of national security have to be strongly deprecated.

Julian Huppert Portrait Dr Julian Huppert (Cambridge) (LD)
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The Minister is right to pay tribute to the work of GCHQ and to prioritise cyber-security, which is very important for all of us. He will be aware that a fundamental part of that is good encryption, so will he encourage individuals and companies alike to push ahead with strong end-to-end encryption, wherever possible?

Lord Maude of Horsham Portrait Mr Maude
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Encryption is obviously important, but it is for businesses to decide what level of encryption they want to operate. These are obviously delicate matters, but there is a lot of technology here, and I am happy to say that Britain is very good at it.