§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Government-wide unified incident reporting and alert scheme on information warfare incidents was established; and if he will make a statement. [59427]
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§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 12 November 1998]: UNIRAS—the IT unified incident reporting and alert scheme—was introduced in April 1992 and records all reported IT security incidents across Government. Following a review of protective security in Government departments and agencies, responsibility for the management and operation of the scheme was transferred from the Control Computer and Telecommunications Agency, CCTA, to the Security Service in August 1994. The aim of the scheme is to monitor, analyse and raise awareness of IT security incidents, including any which may involve electronic attack affecting the secure operation of Government Systems.
§ Mr. KeyTo ask the Secretary of State for Defence when the Government will announce measures for the defence of critical national information technology infrastructure. [59429]
§ Mr. Spellar[holding answer 12 November 1998]: The Government are aware of a number of potential threats to the critical national IT infrastructure and a range of security measures is already in place to protect the associated IT systems. I have nothing to add to the announcement I gave in the Adjournment Debate of 4 November 1998, Official Report, columns 987-92, on Information Warfare, that the Government hope to announce shortly a package of measures that will further ensure adequate defence of key systems in the critical national infrastructure.