When it comes to fighting cybercrime, the UK government has proven that it's very good at one thing: launching new initiatives to try to combat the problem effectively. The latest initiative comes by way of a government/academic partnership designed to bring together various experts who will collaborate to fight cybercrime.

The initiative was recently announced by James Brokenshire, Minister for Security at the Home Office.  Mr Brokenshire said that he would be chairing a meeting along with Minister for Universities and Science David Willetts to launch what is being called the Cybercrime Reduction Partnership. Beyond announcing the meeting, Brokenshire didn't give any further details except to say the project will “provide a new forum in which government, law enforcement, industry and academia can regularly come together to tackle cybercrime more effectively.”  Details of the meeting's other attendees or the agenda have not been released. Later this month the Cyber Security Information Sharing Partnership (CISP) will be launched.  These latest partnerships are two on a long list of government initiatives that include the new UK National Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT) and the National Crime Agency's National Cyber Crime Unit. If nothing else, the government's latest actions prove they are committed to doing at least something about the issue of cybercrime.  Whether or not new initiatives actually accomplish anything productive remains to be seen.  If each of the initiatives can effectively reach the goals set for them then there is hope that real, quantifiable work will be done.

A Comprehensive National Policy

All politics aside, the recent government actions are important developments for the world of cyber security.  Plenty of white papers have been written, symposiums have been held, and professionals in IT services have talked and talked.  Now it's time to put all of it into action through a comprehensive national policy that will actively go after cyber criminals while at the same time safeguarding the digital security of each of the country's citizens. The need for government action is especially important in light of the current cloud-computing environment.  While Europe lags behind the United States in cloud implementation, the sector in the UK has been aggressively pursuing the cloud market in order to catch up.  The nature of cloud computing requires a comprehensive security strategy if it is going to fly.  Hopefully the plethora of government initiatives will be key to setting and implementing that strategy. While the government works on cybercrime issues, it is up to the private sector to continue developing better methods of security for the cloud environment.  Such methods will include advanced hardware and technology, targeted software, and a continual development of IT practises designed to keep data safe. Cybercrime and cyber security are two issues that will never completely go away however enough steps are being taken to provide consumers the confidence they need to embrace the digital age and cloud computing with complete confidence.  Thanks to the efforts of dedicated IT professionals, we'll all remain relatively safe.