UK on a Mission to Raise the Bar for Cyber Excellence2 min read

Discussions on the importance of cyber resilience at a national level are finally picking up momentum and are starting to make their way into the political discourse and agendas internationally. During the US presidential debate cyber warfare was claimed to become the biggest challenge facing the next president; ENISA (The EU Agency for Network and Information Security) announced in October a European Cyber Security Month (ECSM), whilst the regulatory environment is getting ever more complex: the Directive on security of network and information systems (the NIS Directive) was adopted by the European Parliament on 6 July 2016 (entered into force in August 2016), and the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) takes effect shortly that will inevitably have a strong impact on national legislations in and beyond European Union.

We are not sure if the UK can be called a leader in the field but it certainly has helped that the government announced its intention of making the UK’s the safest place of doing business and backing it with some money and actions: in November 2015 announcing £1.9 billion cyber security spending plans; and now – the long-expected launch of the National Cyber Security Centre, the UK’s authority on cyber security, which went operational on October 3rd 2016. The centre which will become new home for somewhat 700 of staff will be led by Ciaran Martin, who moves from being GCHQ’s director general of cyber security; and will bring together CESG – the Information Security arm of GCHQ – the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, CERT-UK, and the Centre for Cyber Assessment, to form one organisation that will simplify the current cyber security landscape.

Before the centre officially opens its doors, we invite you to visit CyNation HQ that is located just the next door to explore what has been already achieved in the cyber security innovation space.

More details https://www.ncsc.gov.uk/about-us