Digital Economy Bill — House of Lords, 2017-02-06
Topic: Technology
James Arbuthnot (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, I draw noble Lords’ attention to my interests in the register, particularly to the fact that I am chairman of the Information Assurance Advisory Council, chair of the advisory board of Thales UK and a member of the advisory board of IRM, among other cyber-interested companies This Bill is about the digital economy, but it contains very little mention of security. Yet cybersecurity is essential, both to the proper functioning of the internet, on which we so rely, and to the trust we place in the digital economy. Global research has been done by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association of the United States of America, and I am indebted to it for its help on these amendments. That research has shown that two-thirds of chief executives of major corporations do not have confidence in their workforces to deal with anything beyond the simplest of data breaches. We all know that there has been no shortage of high-profile data breaches on both sides of the Atlantic over the last 12 months. That has damaged the economic performance of companies and their stock price, and has significantly reduced consumer and business confidence I congratulate the Government on making real progress in this area. They have introduced Cyber Essentials, which has been helpful in boosting implementation of cyber controls. I suggest, though, that the uptake of Cyber Essentials has been disappointing. It is not always a requirement that companies observe even the relatively low level of assurance that Cyber Essentials suggests. I use the word "suggests" because of course it is not compulsory. Equally, the new cybersecurity strategy has brought £1.9 billion into developing a capability across the whole of society to address everything from the biggest companies to individual citizens. The Minister of State for Digital and Culture recently indicated in another place that the Government intend to implement the General Data Protection Regulation in full. That is a good thing, but I very much doubt that businesses—and probably even government departments—are anywhere near ready for the GDPR, nor as far along as they really should be by this stage In view of the existential nature of our reliance on cyber nowadays, I therefore suggest that we need to go further. Consumers, investors, executives and government alike all need confidence that businesses are taking appropriate steps to safeguard their data and their IT systems—and those of their supply chains as well—from malicious activity. So, I have decided to be helpful. I propose these amendments, which introduce the notion of a cyber audit. They are probing amendments: their wording creates obligations that are perhaps more imperative than I would like to see, because I believe we should start with encouragement rather than requirement Everyone is now accepting of, and accustomed to, the notion of external independent financial audits, which have become the norm throughout the world. I believe that a similar approach now needs to be followed in relation to cybersecurity. My suggestion is that we should undertake cyber audits—perhaps as part of financial audits, or perhaps separately; it does not really matter. Those audits could be based on standards that could be evolved by industry, rather than by government, because government legislation never manages to keep up with the astonishing pace of technological change. These cyber audits should include external stress tests of a company’s cybersecurity in areas such as email, and possibly even in relation to a company’s products I think the entire House knows that, in 2013, the Target chain of 1,800 stores in the United States of America was hacked by people who broke into its air conditioning system, which was supplied by a third party. Everybody knows about last autumn’s botnet attack by rogue webcams. So if we did this and went for cyber audits, we could gradually begin to address the issue of cybersecurity, so that over time no longer would it create quite the existential threat that it does now. It would need to start on a voluntary basis and be driven by business, not by government, but, in time, I believe it would spread internationally, so that the United Kingdom would not be disadvantaged in competitive terms. It would also ensure that the United Kingdom was in the vanguard of global best practice. I beg to move.