Infosecurity Europe says industry ready to meet cyber-attacks challenge identified in Spending Review

Infosecurity Europe says IT industry is ready to meet the challenge of terrorism and cyber-attacks identified as major threat to UK PLC

Responding to the government's newly-unveiled security strategy, the organisers of the InfoSecurity Europe event, held each spring in the UK, says that the UK's IT industry is ready to take on the challenges that the new decade of cybercrime will create. Infosecurity Europe's will be held at Earls Court, London 19-21 April 2011 www.infosec.co.uk

Claire Sellick, Infosecurity Europe's Event Director, said that the current - and ongoing - convergence of technologies in the IT sector means that business life can be made significantly easier, with information available on a 24-7 basis, even when out and about, using a mobile Internet-enabled device.

"Even without access to a laptop and mobile broadband dongle, business professionals can still hold a lot of computing power in the palm of their hand, in the shape of a smartphone. But just as these mobile Internet-enabled devices are threatened by cyber-crminals, our research suggests that, with the right technology in place, the Internet users of UK PLC are more than ready for the security threats that hackers and criminals throw at them," she said.

"The government has committed half a billion pounds to help defend the UK national infrastructure which, when viewed against a backdrop of budget cuts elsewhere in Whitehall, is a very positive move, for which the cross-party review team are to be applauded," she added.

According to Sellick, the conclusions of the cross-party Strategic Defence Review lays the foundations for a new period of UK defences, with the battle lines of the future being drawn in both the traditional physical landscape, as well as the equally important cyber landscape.

We are seeing, she said, a growing number of terrorists that eschew their traditional tools for the electronic weaponry that the Internet now offers them.

The UK IT security industry, she explained, has been supplying its clients with the latest computer defences for several years, creating an electronic ring of steel around business IT systems that few people truly understand, and even fewer can attack effectively.

"The rapid pace of electronic hackery and espionage, however, is such that crackers will develop new attacks and methodologies that can be employed for fraudulent, and well as terrorist means," she said.

"We're confident that, with the latest technology at their fingertips, today's British businesses can better defend themselves against the coming wave of security threats," she added.

For more on the government's national security strategy: http://bit.ly/aByYrL

Infosecurity Europe, celebrating 16 years at the heart of the industry in 2011, is Europe’s number one Information Security event. Featuring over 300 exhibitors, the most diverse range of new products and services, an unrivalled education programme and visitors from every segment of the industry, it is the most important date in the calendar for Information Security professionals across Europe. Organised by Reed Exhibitions, the world’s largest tradeshow organiser, Infosecurity Europe is one of five Infosecurity events around the world with events also running in Belgium, Netherlands and Russia. Infosecurity Europe runs from the 19th 21st April 2011, in Earls Court, London. For further information please visit www.infosec.co.uk

For more on the Infosecurity Europe show: www.infosec.co.uk