'Exponential rise' in attacks on departments, industry and public reveal global cybercrime marketplace, says intelligence director
A "significant but unsuccessful" cyber-attack was made on the Foreign Office and other government departments this summer, according to GCHQ.
Iain Lobban, director of the government's listening centre, said the UK's "continued economic wellbeing" was under threat because of a "disturbing" number of such attacks on the government, industry and members of the public.
Writing in the Times, he said sensitive data on government computers had been targeted, along with defence, technology and engineering firms' designs.
"I can attest to attempts to steal British ideas and designs – in the IT, technology, defence, engineering and energy sectors, as well as other industries – to gain commercial advantage or to profit from secret knowledge of contractual arrangements," said Lobban. "Such intellectual property theft doesn't just cost the companies concerned. It represents an attack on the UK's continued economic wellbeing.
"We are also aware of similar techniques being employed to try to acquire sensitive information from British government computer systems, including one significant (but unsuccessful) attempt on the Foreign Office and other government departments this summer."
Lobban did not give further details, but added: "Criminals are using cyberspace to extort money and steal identities, as well as exploit the vulnerable. Increasingly sophisticated techniques target individuals. We are witnessing the development of a global criminal market place – a parallel black economy where cyber dollars are traded in exchange for UK citizens' credit card details. Tackling cyber crime matters and it is a very real threat to our prosperity."
Lobban's article comes before a conference in London on Tuesday on cyber-security, including political leaders and technology experts. Among the delegates will be Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, and Jimmy Wales, co-founder of Wikipedia.
William Hague, the foreign secretary, told the Times there had been an "exponential rise" in incidents, with welfare and tax databases among systems "liable to attack".
"Countries that cannot maintain cybersecurity of their banking system, of the intellectual property of their companies, will be at a serious disadvantage in the world."
In one criminal operation, interrupted by British intelligence and crime agencies,1m stolen identities were being traded. The discovery this summer, by GCHQ and the Serious Organised Crime Agency, prevented £300m of debit and credit card fraud, according to Hague.
Organised crime networks were in an "arms race" trying to steal money and ideas, in which "new techniques are adopted every day". The government was putting £650m into preventing attacks over the next four years, and was already combating problems each hour or each day, Hague said.
"It is vital that businesses work with the government to become aware of all the threats they face and work with us on their defences."
Governments did not and should not control the internet, said Hague, but he hoped for a "common sense of what the acceptable norm of behaviour in cyberspace" ought to be. The "vast" benefits of the rise of the internet must be balanced with the risk, he said.
In May, the Guardian revealed how the UK was developing a cyber weapons programme to counter growing threats to national security. Hague told a security conference in Munich in February that the Foreign Office had repelled a cyber-attack a month earlier from "a hostile state intelligence agency". Sources told the Guardian at the time that the attack was believed to be from Chinese intelligence agencies.
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