The UK government has outlined what the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) will do, how it will work and who it will work for.
The NCSC is set to open in October 2016 and will be based in London. The NCSC will be led by CEO Ciaran Martin, formerly director general of government and industry cyber security at intelligence agency GCHQ. The technical director for the NCSC will be Ian Levy, formerly technical director of cyber security at GCHQ.
Chancellor George Osborne announced the NCSC in November 2015 as part of the government’s National Cyber Security strategy for the next five years, supported with £1.9 billion funding.
The NCSC is at the heart of that strategy and will be the “bridge” between industry and government, said Matthew Hancock, minister for the Cabinet Office.
It will simplify the “current complex structures, providing a unified source of advice and support, including on managing incidents. It will be a single point of contact for the private and public sectors alike,” he wrote in foreward to the prospectus for the NCSC.
Hancock said it is “vital” that the NSCS works with industry from the very start, and called on UK businesses to give feedback on the centre’s proposed design.
NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin invited UK industry to engage with his team about what they would like to get out of working with the NCSC.
“The government has set out its intent to address the cyber threat, to put tough and innovative approaches in place, and to be a world leader in cyber security.”
“The National Cyber Security Centre will be at the heart of this approach, bringing together the capabilities already developed by CESG – the information security arm of GCHQ, the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, Cert-UK and the Centre for Cyber Assessment.
“This will allow us to build on the best of what we already have, while significantly simplifying the current arrangements,” he said.
According to the prospectus, the NCSC will have four key objectives:
- To understand the cyber security environment, share knowledge, and use that expertise to identify and address systemic vulnerabilities.
- To reduce risks to the UK by working with public and private sector organisations to improve their cyber security.
- To respond to cyber security incidents to reduce the harm they cause to the UK.
- To nurture and grow national cyber security capability, and provide leadership on critical national cyber security issues.
Cyber Security Force will detail more information on the NCSC in our next news post.