Security risks will be increased by Digital Britain says Blunkett

An increase in the number of security risks that will arise with the implementation of universal broadband access in the UK has been warned of by David Blunkett, the Former home secretary.

The claims were made that by its nature computer security issues will be aggravated by the extension of the availability of broadband in every household by 2012, which has been proposed by the government, according to Blunkett whilst speaking at the Infosecurity 2009 conference recently.

Blunkett said “The greater the activity and speed of action, the greater the danger. Not because of the broadband extension itself, but because of the exponential rise in activity that facilitates.”

The proposal for every UK home to have broadband access by 2012 comes from the Digital Britain report, which is currently being prepared by Lord Carter, the Communications Minister. The former home secretary did, however, say that although the increase in broadband activity would lead to increased cybercrime and hacking, that co-ordinated action would be able to mitigate the issue.

Blunkett said “We need to put together those dealing with counter-terrorism, those dealing with fraud, those interested in developing infrastructure, and those dealing with inclusiveness and championing awareness. If we can get together we’ve got government, business and individuals all working in the right direction.”

The risk that part of what made the internet so “attractive” could be destroyed if it became too controlled was a concern voiced by Lord Errol, a cross-bench peer recently.

Erroll said “The real trouble is, if you control everything too much you curtail internet freedom. It’s early days for the internet. The world hasn’t come to an end yet due to cyberattack, and we need to be careful that the internet and everything dependent on it doesn’t stop working because it’s all locked down too much.”