Patrick Vallance advocates for a balanced strategy to ensure access to new research.The UK’s new science minister has stated that cyber security must be a national priority in order to protect data troves that are producing significant breakthroughs in disciplines such as public health but pose greater potential threats as they develop.
Lord Patrick Vallance stated that digital security was “at the forefront” of official thinking following high-profile extortion assaults and IT breakdowns that highlighted the need to strengthen hacker defences and backup storage alternatives.
His statements highlight how leveraging the power of large amounts of data has fueled amazing technological progress while making criminals and hostile regimes more vulnerable. According to Vallance, the proposed cyber security and resilience bill published in the King’s Speech last week demonstrates that Sir Keir Starmer’s administration recognized the importance of action.
“The reason why that’s been announced so early during this government is the recognition that we do need to get that fit for current use and indeed as future-proofed as possible,” the prime minister added. “We live in a world where cyber attacks are inevitable, thus suitable backup and storage facilities are essential.
Vallance was speaking ahead of the government’s announcement on Thursday that Amazon Web Services, a subsidiary of the US technology corporation, will provide cloud computing storage access worth approximately £8 million to the massive UK Biobank genetic database. Data from the facility, which contains 500,000 people’s records, has led to findings ranging from potential Alzheimer’s disease diagnostics to how some present medical risks are rooted in old migration patterns.
While Vallance stated that Biobank had “well-covered” digital security, he also mentioned a number of cyber attacks on government facilities, including the government Health Service. A ransomware attack on the Synnovis public-private partnership in June disrupted treatment for thousands of patients registered at major London hospitals.
Vallance emphasized the extra risk of non-malicious interruption to digital infrastructure, as highlighted by last week’s global IT outage, which prevented most GP offices in England from accessing patient record systems. He said that necessary cyber defenses must avoid going “so far in one direction” as to prevent the type of data exchange employed by Biobank to support groundbreaking scientific study around the world.
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