NCSC CEO warns against complacency while outlining future cyber risks

The virtual speech, delivered to an audience at Queen’s University in Belfast, saw Cameron outline why she thinks all of the UK has a role to play in making the UK the safest place to live and do business online.

During the speech, Cameron suggested that basic cyber hygiene is as important a life skill as knowing how to wire a plug, while also voicing the view that digital literacy is now as non-negotiable in Boardrooms as financial literacy.

Cameron stated: “The cyber security landscape we see now in the UK reflects huge progress and relative strength, but it’s not a position about which we can afford to be complacent. Cyber security is still not taken as seriously as it should be and is simply not embedded in UK Boardrooms. The pace of change is no excuse. In Boardrooms, digital literacy is as non-negotiable as financial or legal literacy. Our CEOs should be as close to their CISO as their Finance Director and General Counsel.”

Further, Cameron observed: “We want to help Boards of Directors develop this knowledge as we’re all too aware that cyber skills are not yet fundamental to our education even though these are life skills like wiring a plug or changing a tyre, not to mention necessary skills for the future digital economy.”

Ransomware cases

The NCSC’s CEO also cited examples like recent ransomware cases and the SolarWinds and Microsoft Exchange compromises as examples of episodes that highlight the real danger the UK faces. In addition, Cameron outlined how she envisions the NCSC helping to further increase the UK’s cyber resilience.

Importantly, Cameron detailed her vision of how the NCSC can help to further increase the UK’s cyber resilience and usher in a new era of technological ambition, agility and internationalism designed to make the UK the safest place to live and do business online.

Cameron’s key priorities for the NCSC were also aired. They include ensuring that critical infrastructure is made as hard a target as possible for those that might seek to disrupt it, the ever-increasing amounts of data generated and processed are properly protected (and privacy appropriately managed), the next generation of commodity technologies don’t repeat the security mistakes of the past and future generations are better equipped to deal with this complexity than any of their predecessors.

*Read the full speech by visiting the National Cyber Security Centre’s website