Cybersecuronomics: Cybersecurity & Labour's modern industrial strategy

Abstract

How can Labour bolster the UK’s cybersecurity in line with the framework set out in the ‘securonomics’ agenda and its modern industrial strategy? Business, our personal lives and even our nation’s critical infrastructure are increasingly dependent on cyberspace.

While the technology brings benefits, it also exposes us to new risks, from criminals and states such as Russia, China and North Korea – each increasingly comfortable operating in a grey zone of digital disruption, espionage and interference.

If the state and country as a whole are not secure, then the economy and society are not secure – and vice versa. It is Labour’s task to develop a plan to preserve and bolster the UK’s cyber-status.

The cybersecurity sector has the potential to be a positive national success story for a future Labour government, helping to construct a positive relationship between economic security, national security, and better and more secure work, across the UK.

Government investment and regulatory intervention can help Labour to leverage two important narratives ahead of the next election; the first, that the party are now strong on security, the second that Labour supports jobs, skills and industry guided by the principle ‘buy, make, sell in Britain’.