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The UK will double its surveillance and cybercrime budget by almost £2bn in response to the Paris terror attacks, George Osborne has said.

The chancellor who was speaking at the headquarters of GCHQ said that to tackle potential cyberattacks from the Islamic State (IS) and other terrorists the spending in the area needs to be vastly increased by 2020.


Osborne confirmed that the UK will launch its own attacks to counter any cyberattacks that are detected. He said he wants IS and others to know that the country is "able to hit back" against any attempts made to damage the country's digital infrastructure. "We need to destroy the idea that there is impunity in cyberspace," Osborne said. "We need those who would harm us to know that we will defend ourselves robustly. And that we have the means to do so."

The ability for the government to launch cyberattacks has been developed through funding provided by the last government and as part of the National Offensive Cyber Programme, he said. "We reserve the right to respond to a cyberattack in any way that we choose. "And we are ensuring that we have at our disposal the tools and capabilities we need to respond as we need to protect this nation, in cyberspace just as in the physical realm. "We are building our own offensive cyber capability –- a dedicated ability to counter-attack in cyberspace.

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The system is part of a wider plan to help protect against attacks made against the UK online. Osborne said IS wants to hack into crucial national infrastructure, which it can manipulate to kill people. Osborne said that that everything online is a potential target for cyberattacks, and the UK will respond to any attempted attacks on it. "From our banks to our cars, our military to our schools, whatever is online is also a target," he said. "If our electricity supply, or our air traffic control, or our hospitals were successfully attacked online, the impact could be measured not just in terms of economic damage but of lives lost."

However, Osborne will said IS doesn't have the ability to launch these cyberattacks at present only that it is trying to create the capability to do so.

The announcement comes in the wake of the IS terrorist attacks on Paris that killed more than 130 people. During the speech the chancellor said funding for tackling cybercrime will be boosted by an additional £1.9bn by 2020.

Osborne also said a new National Cyber Centre at GCHQ would be created next year. "The Centre will be a unified source of advice and support for the economy, replacing the current array of bodies with a single point of contact," Osborne said.


During the growth of IS the group has used social media to spread its messages of hate, posting horrific videos of headings and murders its members have committed online.

The announcement also comes weeks after the Home Secretary Theresa May launched the government's draft Investigatory Powers Bill. The proposed legislation is intended to increase the online powers of the security services and will legitimise bulk collection of data and the ability to hack into computers and smartphones.

Critics have called the bill a bid to grab more surveillance powers, while officials have argued the powers are needed to be able to protect the country from terrorists and crime.