In a speech in London late last week, David Cameron - the head of the Conservative Party - said that, if elected, his party would create a cyber threat and assessment centre because he believed cyberwarfare would be a growing problem in the 21st century.
Cameron claimed the Conservative Party is planning "one of the most radical departures in security policy we've seen in decades".
And, in a thinly-veiled attack on Alastair Campbell - previous prime minister Tony Blair's director of communications - he said the Conservative Party would take measures to ensure it did not publish any "dodgy dossiers" relating to intelligence and security.
Cameron's speech on plans for national security in the UK were made as the Conservatives published a security green paper entitled `A Resilient Nation.'
In his speech, Cameron confirmed previously-announced plans to set up a UK national security council, which would be served by a full-time national security adviser.
The Conservative leader also committed to create a new permanent military command for homeland defence and security.
As well as committing to form a new cyber threat and assessment centre, the green paper recommends that the incoming government review key national databases and critical infrastructure systems, as well as scrapping the proposed national ID card system, as part of an overall national security strategy.
"We know that there are hundreds of thousands of cyber attacks and crimes against British businesses every year", Cameron said at the launch of the green paper on January 15th.
Whilst the green paper has been dismissed by the Labour government, Cameron's speech drew praise and positive responses from a number of industry leaders, most notably those in the IT industry.
Tony Dyhouse, director of the cyber security programme for the Digital Systems Knowledge Transfer Network (DSKTN), said the proposal to open a door to improved international relations is especially welcome.
"It's very positive to see that this is being taken seriously at such a high level, and I believe this is part of a growing understanding amongst both politicians and businesses of the importance of this issue", he said.
"There are concerns about cyber attacks originating from foreign shores, but keeping these nations at arm's length will make this worse", he added.
According to Dyhouse, who is also a senior manager with Qinetiq, the defence technology group, the UK has seen problems around international diplomacy come to the fore in the last few days with Google and China.
Against this backdrop, he explained, opening up a good relationship is the best way to address this, since the UK needs good diplomacy as much as it needs good technology.
"This plan is a good vision with a lot of sound ideas which I would like to see implemented. This proposal, like others that have been made, relies on improved collaboration," Dyhouse noted.
"Unfortunately businesses and organisations, particularly in cyber-security, have vested interests and aren't always keen to share for fear of losing the competitive advantage", he said.
"Addressing this silo mentality will be one of the key challenges of any cyber-security policy over the next few years", he added.