In grave news that spells unrest on the horizon for the UK, the country’s MPs have raised doubts about its potential to defend itself against possible cyber attacks.
In a report published less than 24 hours ago, the Commons Public Accounts Committee said that “ministers had taken too long to consolidate the ‘alphabet soup’ of agencies tasked with stopping attacks”. The report expostulates on the fact that all the way since 2010, the threat from cyber attacks has been one of the UK’s top four risks to national security.
It is to fight this threat that the paper gives the recommendation for the Cabinet Office to develop a detailed plan for the National Cyber Security Centre (NSCS) by the time this financial year rolls to a close, setting out who it will support; what aid will be provided; and how it will communicate with organisations in need of assistance.
In continuation, the report comments on the fact that, as of April last year, there were at least 12 separate teams or organisations in the centre of government whose responsibility it was to safeguarding information, even though many of these have now been merged by the Cabinet Office.
The report also goes on to say that the government should make it an objective to establish a clear approach for protecting information across the public sector and delivery partners as a whole, and elucidate how its policy and guidance documents can be of most use to all incumbents, leaving no margin for error.
David Ferbrache, technical director in KPMG’s cybersecurity practice, commented on the Public Accounts Committee report, saying:
The Public Accounts Committee report highlights the long overdue rationalisation of cyber security roles and functions across Government. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) plays a vital role in defending the UK against State sponsored cyber-attacks, the militarisation of cyber space and an increasingly sophisticated organised cyber-crime threat.
He is of the opinion that while “good progress” has been made by the NCSC in developing and implementing its cyber security strategy, there still remains ” a long way to go”.
He concluded,
There can be a natural tendency for governments to cloak discussions around security in secrecy but when it comes to cyber security, the best response is a community response that involves industry. The NCSC must be agile, flexible and unconventional – and it can only achieve that by drawing on talent from the community as a whole.
