Member

First, I shall say a word about the threats and the financial cost. Noble Lords may remember that, at Second Reading, many people mentioned the estimated £15 billion annual cost to the UK of lost revenues as a result of cyber attacks in this country. This is almost certainly a serious underestimate given how many outfits fail to report cyber attacks or, indeed, near misses. The financial impact comes in the form of not just reparation, reputational costs and lost revenues but the major distraction on core businesses, the drain on resources and loss of productivity. These real costs are not factored in, so no one knows the actual number. It could well be as high as £30 billion a year, but we know that this figure reflecting the multiplicity of threats is growing at an alarming rate and could breach the £100 billion mark within the next five years unless we massively upgrade our cyber defences, detection, knowledge, standards and certification practices as these amendments propose.