As the UK’s first ever security strategy shows, delivering change will rely on strength in numbers.
As the UK’s first ever security strategy shows, delivering change will rely on strength in numbers.
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<p id=\"m_-2624201108050792963m_-8285926852188899032gmail-docs-internal-guid-bb9345c4-7fff-9e4d-7a0f-dee6263e0895\" dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">The Government’s new Cyber Strategy sets out in no uncertain terms the importance of our collective cyber security to the safety and prosperity of the UK. In an increasingly complex landscape where governments, businesses and society must react to understand the risks we face, we are pleased ‘defend as one’ will be central to the Government’s approach. A whole-of-nation strategy is key for establishing the UK as a responsible and democratic cyber power on the international stage.</span></p>
<p dir=\"ltr\"><span style=\"font-size: small;\">At Nominet, we’re proud to deliver PDNS for the National Cyber Security Centre, a key component of the UK’s Active Cyber Defence. It has protected vital public services at a critical juncture of heightened threat and exposure. By being able to block inadvertent access to domains or IPs that are known to contain malicious content, this simple and effective capability will remain critical as attackers adapt their tools, techniques and processes over time. Government’s backing for these kinds of innovative, scalable solutions will help to elevate not just the UK’s collective security, but will also strengthen the collective cyber resilience of our allies overseas.</span></p>
<p>A reality in today’s interconnected society is that hackers have a variety of tools at their disposal to damage, or worse steal personal information. And while technologies such as artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet of Things (IoT) enable us to access files and online ecosystems with ease, they also bring widespread risk. Apply this to one of the most integral public networks in the UK – Westminster – and it should come as no surprise to see the government boost their cyber capabilities.</p>
<p>Effective cybersecurity assessment and monitoring, as well as methods for dealing with breaches quickly and effectively, help keep sensitive information out of the hands of attackers. However, organisations must educate and empower every employee in order to change the mindset towards cybersecurity and guarantee safety is built-in by design. There needs to be a better culture of education to help employees understand the cyber risks that we all navigate daily. For instance, hackers have become sophisticated enough to use IoT devices to obtain financial information, or in this case voter information, yet we continue to use the same passwords across multiple devices.</p>
<p>At the end of the day, people need to understand that cyberattacks are just another risk that needs to be mitigated, and that technology isn’t a panacea. It’s the education and resulting behavioural change that is critical to ensuring data, and IT systems, are kept protected.</p>
<p>Greater collaboration is central to our defences. Not only at the intelligence level, but at the technology level. </p>
<p>Adversaries have already shown they are willing to exploit any gaps in defence. </p>
<p>For threat intelligence to be successfully gathered and shared, the barriers need to be broken down. Not just between people and departments but security systems and infrastructure. The ideal is gaining one single view of how and where attacks are propagating. </p>
<p>Only then is it possible to autonomously respond to threats at machine speed and realise the government’s aims of being a Cyber Power on the world stage.</p>