Attack is a timely reminder of the global threats we face

Friday’s ransomware attack has struck thousands of organisations in nearly 100 countries. With reports that it may be the biggest attack of its kind ever recorded, countries from Russia to Ukraine, India, Spain, the US, and indeed all over the world, have been targeted.

But while its sheer, unprecedented scale may be new, the cyber threat itself isn’t. One of the biggest challenges for any home secretary, indeed any government, is how we deal with emerging threats.

As this week has so acutely reminded us, the attacks will continue to grow – in frequency, in sophistication, in volume.

We have a cadre of home-grown cyber-skilled professionals to meet the demands of an increasingly digital world. We have some of the best intelligence and crime fighting agencies in the world. In line with established procedures, they sprang into action on Friday. Their operational response has once again been extremely impressive, as was that of our healthcare professionals who worked so tirelessly to minimise the impact on patients and the public.

There will be lessons to learn, but the immediate priority must always be to disrupt the attack and restore vital services while trying to establish who was behind it.

Investigations are ongoing, though it may be the case that we will never be fully sure who carried them out.

Much of the most serious cybercrime – mainly fraud, theft and extortion – against the UK continues to be carried out by organised crime groups in Eastern Europe. But this really is a crime that has no respect for borders and is by no means simply limited to one region or country.

International cooperation is an essential part of wider global economic and security debates. Intelligence-sharing is vitally important, as is our work helping partners build their own resilience. In Brexit negotiations, the leadership of Theresa May will be vital in securing continued, effective cooperation with partners such as Europol in the fight against cyber crime.

And this brings once again into sharp relief whether Jeremy Corbyn and Diane Abbott can be trusted with our security. In another dangerous intervention, the shadow home secretary yesterday criticised our world-leading cyber security capability as “snooping”. And Labour’s leaked manifesto failed to mention cyber security even once.

Over the next few years, a Tory government led by Theresa May will invest nearly £2billion in cyber security. It is absolutely necessary that we do. Even before Friday’s attack, nearly two thirds of large businesses reported having experienced a cyber attack or breach in the last year.

Just imagine Diane Abbott unpicking all of this, or undoing everything we have done to keep the country safe. She doesn’t seem to grasp that if we fail to act effectively, the threat will outpace and ultimately engulf us.

The chaos that would ensue were Diane Abbott and Jeremy Corbyn to be in charge of the nation’s security scarcely bares thinking about. I asked

Sunday Telegraph readers last week if they trusted Mr Corbyn and Ms Abbott with our security – and I’d ask them to consider that question for a second time.

‘International cooperation is an essential part of wider global economic and security debates’