National Cyber Security Centre CEO Ciaran Martin sets out UK’s new approach towards defence
Ciaran Martin, the current Director General for Cyber at GCHQ and the first CEO of the new National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has spoken at the Billington Cyber Security Summit held in Washington DC. Martin set out how the new operation will adopt a “more active posture” in defending the UK from the range of cyber threats it currently faces and also highlighted the need for Government, industry and law enforcement to work in even closer partnership.
“As part of GCHQ, the National Cyber Security Centre isn’t just there to co-ordinate,” explained Martin. “It’s there to deliver an ambitious strategy that the Government is preparing. That strategy is about tackling the most capable threats and protecting our most important national systems. Of course it is, but it’s also about a significant shift in thinking towards looking, at a national level, at how we use technology to improve cyber security everywhere in the UK.”
The majority of successful cyber attacks are not sophisticated. They can be defended against, but they’re doing serious damage, and Martin firmly believes the UK needs to do better.
“If we’re going to retain confidence in our increasingly digitised economy, we have to make sure that everyone – our private citizens, our small businesses, our not-for-profits as well as our largest and most pivotal public and private institutions – can do business in a digital environment that’s fundamentally safer than it is now. To do that means using technology to automate our defences against these unsophisticated, but prolific attacks.”