Lindy Cameron, CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), reflects on the events of her first year in charge and issues a fresh warning about ransomware.
The NCSC, an arm of GCHQ and the National Crime Agency, helps the UK leverage technology without falling victim to it. This balance is important to the UK’s prosperity.
Lindy Cameron encouraged boards to protect against cyber threats:
“…responsibility for understanding cyber security risks does not start and end with the IT department. Chief executives and boards also have a crucial role – and we have advice for them too. I don’t think any chief exec would get away with saying they don’t need to understand legal risk because they have a General Counsel. I think the same should be true of cyber risk. This is a board-level issue.”
She also identified ransomware as “the most immediate danger” to UK businesses. Governments are combining forces to tackle this crime, but she exhorted organisations to play their part too and harden their defences to mitigate the risks and stem the tide of successful attacks:
“But victims also have agency here too. So I’m going to ask: do you know what you would do if it happened to you? Have you rehearsed this? Have you taken steps to ensure your systems are the hardest target in your market or sector to compromise? And if you’d even contemplate paying a ransom, are you comfortable that you are investing enough to stop that conversation ever happening in the first place.”
You can find her full speech here.