The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is officially launched and open for business today 4 October 2016.
The government outlined what the NCSC would do, how it would work and who it would work for in May this year, but had not given a precise date for the official opening of the centre until now.
The NCSC will be led by CEO Ciaran Martin, formerly director general of government and industry cyber security at intelligence agency GCHQ, and the technical director will be Ian Levy, formerly technical director of cyber security at GCHQ.
The NCSC will be run from new offices in London as well as from offices near Cheltenham, Gloucestershire.
The primary goal of the NCSC is to simplify the complicated cyber security picture across government that made it difficult for organisations to know who to talk to.
It brings together all the key organisations under a single organisational umbrella to provide better support and bridge the gaps between government, industry and critical national infrastructure.
There were four main goals for the NCSC, which began preparatory work and conducted trials and pilot studies over the summer:
- These are to reduce cyber security risk to the UK;
- To respond effectively to cyber incidents and reduce the harm they cause to the UK;
- To understand the cyber security environment, share knowledge and address systemic vulnerabilities and;
- To build the UK’s cyber security capability, providing leadership on key national cyber security issues.
The NCSC has five areas of focus: engagement, strategy and communications, incident management, operations, and technical research and innovation.
In the next six months, the NCSC will test its strategic plan and refine it further based on feedback received.