Britain to build cyber attack forces to tackle Islamic State

Britain to build cyber attack forces to tackle Islamic State

PanARMENIAN.Net - The British government has announced a bold series of new programs to boost its cyber security defenses, including a new, £165 million ($250 million) fund that will see the government buy or invest in cyber security startups to fight Islamic State fighters, hackers and hostile powers, Forbes reports.

Britain will also double its public spending on fighting cybercrime to £1.9 billion a year by 2020. The extra money will be spent on protecting the British public’s online assets as well as public infrastructure like hospitals and electricity grids, Chancellor George Osborne said in a speech at GCHQ, Britain’s main intelligence service focused on cyber crime.

“The threats to our country in cyber space come from a range of places – from individual hackers, criminal gangs, terrorist groups and hostile powers,” he added.

The new program is similar in its intent to DARPA, the American Department of Defence agency that provides funding to startups who are creating cutting-edge technology, whose intellectual property can then be shared with the U.S.

government. Among the projects DARPA is funding are jetpacks that can help soldiers run as fast as Olympic athletes and implants known as ‘neuroprosthetics’ that can treat memory loss.

British startups with a focus on cyber security and analytics software will see the new public funding as great news for their fundraising prospects, at a time where Silicon Valley’s leading venture capitalists have warned that the days of privately funding startups at ultra-high valuations are coming to an end and private funding may be harder to come by.

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