It's about to get safer online in the UK, hopes the government, as it announces a social network for sharing cyber security secrets.
It all sounds very dramatic at first glance but it's not really: MI5 and the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and around 160 private companies are invited to use the portal to share information about cyber threats.
Described variously as "Facebook for cyber security threats" and "a fusion cell", the site won't be accessible to anyone without high level security clearance.
Fusion
Now, hold on to your hats. It's about to go a bit The Thick of It:
"What the fusion cell will be doing is pulling together a single, richer intelligence picture of what is going on in cyberspace and the threats attacking the UK," one senior yet suspiciously anonymous official told the Telegraph. We can only assume s/he is a spy.
"What we are trying to do is get that better intelligence picture and push it out to industry in a way that they can take action on, so it is very action-orientated."
The portal has been running in trial form since last year but has now been granted permanence. We expect username 007 has already been nabbed.
The government is going big on web security at present. Earlier this month it announced a new cyber crime fighting unit that will presumably put the data shared on this new social network to good use.
