Tories to launch cyber crime centre if elected

David Cameron

David Cameron continued along the campaign trail today by announcing new plans to defend the UK against cyber attacks.

Using the Conservative tag line for the upcoming election "we can't go on like this" Cameron said that current government departments aren't prepared for the threats we face.

During a speech at Chatham House, the Tory leader said he would set up a National Security Council to deal with cases of war, pandemics and energy crises, but it would also feature a Cyber Threat and Assessment Centre to tackle the growth of online crime.

"We know that there are hundreds of thousands of cyber-attacks and crimes against British businesses every year," he said. "Against government and the public sector, there may be many more."

He added: "As technology and computers and the internet become bigger and bigger parts of our lives, the effect of cyber warfare will become more pronounced."

All these plans would come into action "on the first day of a Conservative government," claimed Cameron.

The party has kept up with the technological debates in government over the past year.

It has claimed it would scrap ID cards as well as cutting down on Government databases were it to come into power, but was keen to introduce electronic medial records that could be shared, using third party companies like Google.

Jennifer Scott

Jennifer Scott is a former freelance journalist and currently political reporter for Sky News. She has a varied writing history, having started her career at Dennis Publishing, working in various roles across its business technology titles, including ITPro. Jennifer has specialised in a number of areas over the years and has produced a wealth of content for ITPro, focusing largely on data storage, networking, cloud computing, and telecommunications.

Most recently Jennifer has turned her skills to the political sphere and broadcast journalism, where she has worked for the BBC as a political reporter, before moving to Sky News.