Ex-Metropolitan Police cyber crime detective and current MD of Cyber Security Consulting - which still handles government contracts - Adrian Culley has told Computing that the government's £650m budget for cyber security is not sufficient.
"I don't think that's enough, nor would I know how much is enough," said Culley, who added that government neglect of cyber security can be traced back to Tony Blair's administration.
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Culley's views echo those recently expressed to Computing by a panel of industry experts.
During his time at the Met, Culley advised the Blair government's Office of the e-Envoy, a department and post set up to promote e-commerce in the UK.
"At the time, they had a web page, and on there was Tony Blair's objective to make Britain the best place in the world to do electronic business," Culley told Computing.
"And there was something like a 120-point plan there to achieve this. I went to a meeting there, and I said ‘I'd just like to draw your attention to the fact that nowhere in this 120-point plan for the nation do the words 'safety' or 'security' appear'."
However, Culley has called the Coalition's initiative to set up academic cyber security research centres, such as the Oxford-based facility announced by Foreign Secretary William Hague this week, as "a great start".
"They've done a great job at identifying the university faculties that are doing genuine research and have a good skill level, and I think the government has made a great start at pulling that together."
But Culley also believes government and industry need to do more to recruit new blood into cyber security.
"Finding skills for cyber security is a challenge globally," said Culley. "We've been let down by there being no clear and distinct apprenticeships, and no clear career structure for people who want to do this."
Culley said the technology industry has "become siloed".
"There are database skills, hardware skills, network skills, operating system skills and application skills, and you might find people who've got a permutation of three of those, but not many who can work across all of it. For cyber security, you need that," said Culley.
"We've gone adrift at GCSE level - and degree level to an extent," continued Culley.
"Things are being addressed, and it's good that there are GCHQ-based projects like the Cybersecurity Challenge to help, too. But there is a lot more work to be done."
