UK Parliament's Joint Committee publish government response to UK's National Security Strategy

UK Parliament's Joint Committee for the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) has published its third report, which sets out the UK government's response to the strategy and recommendations published by the Committee in November 2018.

NCC Group has engaged with the Committee’s work from the outset, with global CTO Ollie Whitehouse giving written and oral evidence in 2017, which was later used to inform recommendations for the original Committee report.

Commenting on the report, Ollie Whitehouse said: "There's no doubt that the government is committed to continually improving the security of critical national infrastructure (CNI), and its response to the strategy set out in November shows that cyber resilience is becoming a political priority.

"The government’s recognition of the importance of intelligence-led penetration testing schemes is a significant step forward in reinforcing security across the CNI sector. The success of this, of course, will depend on the availability of high-quality intelligence and capabilities, as well as an update to key UK legislation.

"Improving supply chain defences is critical to reinforcing our CNI’s security posture, along with efforts to embed risk management and the implementation of schemes such as the Defence Cyber Protection Partnership, so it’s very encouraging to see both of these highlighted in the report.

"We look forward to seeing the government’s approach to CNI security evolve further, and this knowledge cascading down to key stakeholders who can make real changes to security processes and attitudes.

“To drive this forward, we urge the government to continue investing in dedicated CNI defences and work closely with key players such as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to ensure defences are as robust as possible.”