Matt Hancock isn’t the only politician who is clueless about cyber security

It is widely acknowledged that Britain has some of the world’s finest cyber capabilities. GCHQ is a global leader in those dark arts, and its offshoot, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), is making that expertise available to businesses and others in need of help with their digital defences.

All the more shocking, then, that our political leaders seem so utterly clueless. They have pledged to make Britain the ‘safest place in the world to be online’, but instead are running around like stars in a digital age ‘Carry On’ movie.

Exhibit number one is Matt Hancock. Whitehall has been busy sweeping ministerial offices in search of cameras of the type that caught the former Health Secretary’s kiss, seemingly unaware of the extent of the surveillance. Yet this was not a hidden device: it was a CCTV camera, a pretty obvious bulbous node in the ceiling, installed by a government contractor.