- Defence policy
- Equipment and support
- Modernising defence
- Aviation
- Marine
- Land vehicles
- Security
- HR and training
- Defence estates (DIO)
News updates
Twitter updates
Facebook
Email
Print
'Reservists could offer cyber skills'
16 July 2012
The claim has been made by Sabre, a Ministry of Defence funded body which promotes the benefits of employing reservists to employers.
It has come as the number of trained reservists is set to significantly rise in order to balance the thousands of regular soldiers being cut from the army.
According to The Scotsman, Sabre director Tim Corry said the military "does not teach cyber skills per se".
"So we are talking about recruiting IT professionals," he said. "I would think a lot of them work for large banking companies, which have big security issues protecting their data."
Other professions could also offer specialist skills as reservists. "A large proportion of medics are reservists, and we also want linguists and engineers, where if you could bring them in you would not have to spend a lot of time and money training them," he said.
This article first appeared on our sister site Publicservice.co.uk
HAVE YOUR SAY
16 July 2012
Cyber Security is a Home Office, Foreign Office, SIS/Secret Service/MI5/MI6 responsibility, not the MOD. The nearest part of the Venn diagram is CESG/GCHQ. There's no point speculating on how advanced UK capabilities are, we won't know for 30-70 years when the documents are released.
AlMiles - Bristol, UK
16 July 2012
How much call is there for "cyber skills" when fighting the type of opponent this country is actually capable of taking on militarily - Afghan insurgents, Somali pirates or the ramshackle armed forces of African states? As the answer is "precious little", why does the role need to be performed by people in uniform at all (to justify the existence of some posts for senior officers, knowing the Services)?
And what an inspirational call for volunteers: "We want you because we wouldn't need to spend a lot of time and money training you". Disrupt your career and your family; potentially, put your life at risk but you needn't expect any commitment from your Government in return. It just sees you as a cheap pair of hands.
Stan - York
18 July 2012
How much call is there for "cyber skills" when fighting the type of opponent this country is actually capable of taking on militarily - Afghan insurgents, Somali pirates or the ramshackle armed forces of African states?
Rather harsh Stan! I think Challenger II, Apache, Type45, Typhoon, GR4, Sentinel, TLAM, SSN's to name just a few examples can take on a bit more than Afghan insurgents and pirates.
That is not even mentioning the professionalism of our personnel.
The problem is lack of numbers, so apart from maybe Argentina one can not envisage a state on state war which the UK would be involved in without being part of a coalition, US led.
But that is not to say it will never happen. Which is why I oppose all the cuts as we need more numbers as well as quality.
I could also turn your comment round and ask how many countries could take on the UK militarily??
I personally have no problem with the services doing their bit on cyber if the threats are as serious as are claimed.
Daniele Mandelli - Guildford
28 July 2012
As a Natwest customer, recalling the recent IT fiasco they suffered, I have serious doubts about the IT skillset in UK banks. Not only that, but banks seem to have off-shored their IT support, meaning the IT professionals are not available for recruitment.
AlMiles - last I heard, MoD had an active and growing cyber security unit.
muddler - UK