Thales UK, the French-owned defence giant that hired recently-retired GCHQ chief Sir David Pepper as an advisor, is bidding for a massive government cryptography system that GCHQ has been closely involved in designing - including under Pepper. The firm is leading one of just two industry consortia vying to implement the Ministry of Defence's CIPHER Programme at a price understood to be hundreds of millions of pounds. Pepper - 12 months ago the UK's most senior electronic spy with direct authority over the technicalities of government information security - will be allowed to lobby for the contract on Thales' behalf immediately. The MoD does not plan to award the deal until early 2011, so the firm's bid will enjoy the benefit of his support, contacts, and recent experience for more than a year.
