UK's Cyber Strategy Document
Cyber-Glossary
The UK's National Cyber Security Strategy doc is worth every penny of the free download cost.
Another day, another government report. Adorning my desktop right at this moment is the UK's National Cyber Security Strategy document, launched at the beginning of November 2016 by the Chancellor and Under-Treasurer of Her Majesty's Exchequer, Philip Hammond. It's grabbed my interest for a number of reasons.
First of these is the budget. £1.9bn has apparently been earmarked, though the history of government IT spending should tell us to expect it to cost a lot more. (£1.9bn is also, by an amazing coincidence, the same amount that Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs reckons is being lost in dodged tax by the mega-wealthy.) Lest we forget, the deluxe NHS healthcare records system, commissioned by the UK government at an estimated cost of £2.3bn, was canceled after nine years of work at an eventual cost of £12bn. This was the costliest IT cock-up in history, but the current revamp of the welfare system will overtake it soon unless it's canceled, as the welfare revamp has already cost £12.8bn – for a system that will have only 25,000 users.
The second is the glossary. This wonderful section is a thing of beauty, including no fewer than 28 variations on the word "Cyber." For example, it defines a cyber-physical system as one with "integrated computational and physical components." That sounds like my car to me, and my watch, and my computer, and my phone, and all those webcams that have been turned into a giant bot – in fact it sounds like anything made after 2012 that uses electricity. Any definition as broad as that is functionally useless.
[...]
Buy this article as PDF
(incl. VAT)
Buy Linux Magazine
Subscribe to our Linux Newsletters
Find Linux and Open Source Jobs
Subscribe to our ADMIN Newsletters
Support Our Work
Linux Magazine content is made possible with support from readers like you. Please consider contributing when you’ve found an article to be beneficial.

News
-
There's a New Linux AI Assistant in Town
Newelle is a Linux AI assistant that can work with different LLMs and includes document parsing and profiles.
-
Linux Kernel 6.16 Released with Minor Fixes
The latest Linux kernel doesn't really include any big-ticket features, just a lot of lines of code.
-
EU Sovereign Tech Fund Gains Traction
OpenForum Europe recently released a report regarding a sovereign tech fund with backing from several significant entities.
-
FreeBSD Promises a Full Desktop Installer
FreeBSD has lacked an option to include a full desktop environment during installation.
-
Linux Hits an Important Milestone
If you pay attention to the news in the Linux-sphere, you've probably heard that the open source operating system recently crashed through a ceiling no one thought possible.
-
Plasma Bigscreen Returns
A developer discovered that the Plasma Bigscreen feature had been sitting untouched, so he decided to do something about it.
-
CachyOS Now Lets Users Choose Their Shell
Imagine getting the opportunity to select which shell you want during the installation of your favorite Linux distribution. That's now a thing.
-
Wayland 1.24 Released with Fixes and New Features
Wayland continues to move forward, while X11 slowly vanishes into the shadows, and the latest release includes plenty of improvements.
-
Bugs Found in sudo
Two critical flaws allow users to gain access to root privileges.
-
Fedora Continues 32-Bit Support
In a move that should come as a relief to some portions of the Linux community, Fedora will continue supporting 32-bit architecture.