The UK government has published a new National Cyber Security Strategy.
The strategy aims to reinforce the UK’s economic and strategic strengths in cyberspace, including more diversity in the workforce, levelling up the cyber sector across all UK regions, expanding offensive and defensive cyber capabilities and prioritising cyber security in the workplace, boardrooms and digital supply chains.
Jamie Collier, Cyber Threat Intelligence Consultant at Mandiant commented, “The new National Cyber Strategy is a positive and assertive vision from the UK Government, outlining a strong intention that the UK intends to fully capitalise on its top tier cyber capabilities. This latest strategy adopts a more encompassing view of cyber that extends beyond security to also connect with broader themes of diplomacy, national power, and statecraft. It presents a proactive vision in responding to both state-backed espionage and cyber criminal activity, recognising that public attribution and even cyber sanction regimes have not always been successful in fundamentally altering the actions of attackers. The recently announced National Cyber Force indicates a new appetite to deter state operations more directly by disrupting adversary network infrastructure.
“The strategy also sets out a firm approach to countering cybercrime, likely in response to the devastating impact of ransomware in the UK and around the world over the past two years. There is a clear willingness to disrupt the cyber criminal ecosystem and the affiliated tools and services that empower criminal groups. With £2.6 billion earmarked for cyber security over the coming five years, the Government clearly remains highly committed to its central vision to keeping the UK a secure and attractive digital economy. It is encouraging to see that spending plans are largely focused on maintaining existing initiatives, as this highlights that the UK Government has already established many of the foundational elements of its national cyber capability and can now build on this momentum. Putting the groundwork in establishing the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) five years ago really paid off for example, as the NCSC is now looked to as an exemplar from international counterparts and is a frequent destination when heads of state visit the UK.”
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