Ministers failing to address hacking

Ministers are failing to act with “a meaningful sense of purpose or urgency” in the face of the growing cyber threat to the UK’S critical national infrastructure, a parliamentary committee has warned.

The joint committee on national security strategy said while states such as Russia were expanding their capability to mount disruptive cyber attacks, the level of ministerial oversight was “wholly inadequate”.

It urged Theresa May to appointasinglecybersecurity minister in the Cabinet Office to take charge of the efforts to build national resilience.

The committee, made up of MPS and peers, also called on the Government to “prioritise” continued information-sharing and collaboration on cyber attacks with the EU in the Brexit talks.

It noted the government assessed a major cyber attack on the UK critical national infrastructure represented a “top tier” threat to national security, with potentially “devastating” consequences.

But while ministers had acknowledged the need to improve resilience, it said their efforts had failed to match the level of risk.

“While we applaud the aspiration, it appears the government is not delivering on it with a meaningful sense of purpose,” it said.