The British Government has recently announced the creation of a new agency focused on cybersecurity, as one of the latest measures to provide the country with a way to respond to the ever growing threat of digital attack.

The Office of Cyber Security (OCS) will be the first dedicated agency for the defense of the government’s critical IT infrastructure. This new agency will be similar to US based cyber-command operations. The OCS’s strategic headquarters will be located in a top of the range facility based at the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) in London.

The OCS will act not just to deal with the realms of cyberattack and defense, but they will also serve as liaison between the government and the information security industry. Effectively, the OCS aims to unify the security policies of the Ministry of Defense, intelligence services and the police.

Parts of these recent announcements reveal that the UK government will develop capabilities to launch aggressive attacks against identified cyber threats to the country. These capabilities include the ability to launch denial of service attacks and remote spying capabilities.

This new cyber security agency will initially start with a small team of highly trained experts. Based on successful models of the US cyber-command department, they will mirror themselves primarily on the United States’ success.

It seems clear that the United Kingdom wants to make it known that it will not be an easy victim, after many European countries have came under recent cyber attacks thanks to lackadaisical security policies and out of date hardware. The question still remains, though, as to whether or not the OCS will succeed in their vision to make UK cyber security virtually impenetrable.

Whether or not this proves to be a success remains to be seen.