UK Chancellor of the Exchequer Jeremy Hunt has presented the spring budget to the UK Houses of Parliament.
Last year saw huge data breaches, cyber attacks and critical infrastructure security breaches in the UK and as a result it was expected that a few pennies, or at least a few words, would go towards cybersecurity.
There were some promising plans for entrepreneurs and investment, but the government appears to have fallen short in its offerings for SMEs and cybersecurity at a time when many are feeling the pressure.
Boost for SMEs
Some good news for small businesses is that the VAT registration threshold for small businesses has been increased from £85,000 to £90,000, providing some headroom for small businesses to grow at a time when many organisations. They hesitate to invest money in themselves.
An additional £200 million is also being channeled into the Recovery Loan Scheme, which will soon become the 'Growth Guarantee Scheme' which will help “11,000 SMEs access the finance they need”.
The Chancellor says the UK is “on course to become the world's next Silicon Valley” and is hopeful changes to pension funds and additional powers for the Pensions Regulator and Financial Conduct Authority will attract technology entrepreneurs to “start here and stay here.” unlocking the investment potential of pension funds for small businesses and start-ups in the UK.
Plans for outdated IT systems are mentioned, but only for productivity reasons
Defense spending is now at the 2% of GDP target set by NATO and will increase to 2.5% “as soon as economic conditions allow”, but there was no mention of cybersecurity investments.
The Joint Committee on National Security Strategy (JCNSS) warned late last year that ransomware “undoubtedly represents a major threat to the national security of the United Kingdom”, but this warning, along with many others, has apparently fallen into disrepair. deaf ears.
The NHS's outdated IT systems received the attention they deserved in the budget announcement, but no mention was made of the security risks posed by the operation of such systems. The driving force behind upgrading archaic systems, at least according to the Chancellor, is to increase productivity and reduce the 13 million hours lost a year due to outdated IT systems.
The WannaCry attack, which relied heavily on outdated IT systems to spread, crippled the NHS along with other institutions on a global scale in 2017. The growing number of ransomware attacks and the inherent vulnerabilities of operating outside current IT systems They should be the main reason to invest in an organization as critical as the NHS.
Although the Chancellor frequently mentions that some aspects of the UK economy are ahead of those of the US and the G7, there are areas outside the economy where the UK is falling dangerously behind.
Al Lakhani, executive director of IDEE, said: “We all understand that attacks no longer need to cross physical borders to wreak havoc. But its legislation on the use of cybersecurity solutions is weak (well behind what is seen in the US and EU) and its investment in cybersecurity is generally mediocre, as today's budget demonstrates once again .
“This point is even more pertinent given the huge investment announced for the digital transformation of the NHS and the wider public sector, which will only increase the threat they face from hackers.
“It is clear that spending on the military and clamping down on immigration benefits voters. But if the Government continues to do so at the expense of protecting the country – its people, its businesses and its public services – from the enormous and evolving threat of “If you suffer from cyber attacks, then you are sleepwalking into a digital war zone where defeat is guaranteed.”
