Government urges large enterprises to shore up defenses as NCSC warns UK faces four 'nationally significant' cyber attacks every week

"Signed by technology secretary Liz Kendall, chancellor Rachel Reeves, business secretary Peter Kyle, security minister Dan Jarvis, and the heads of the NCSC and National Crime Agency, it points out that hostile cyber activity in the UK is becoming more intense, frequent, and sophisticated. "The government is taking significant action to counter the cyber threat and has developed tools to help businesses to defend themselves, but we cannot do this alone," it reads."

"According to the letter, organizations should make cyber risk a board-level priority using the Cyber Governance Code of Practice and sign up to the NCSC's Early Warning Service. They should also implement Cyber Essentials and require it in their supply chain. Notably, this certification scheme comes with an incentive: it includes automatic cyber liability insurance for any UK organization that certifies the whole organization and has less than £20 million annual turnover."

"The advice comes as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) revealed it dealt with a record 204 nationally significant cyber attacks in the year to September - more than twice as many as the 89 it handled in the previous 12 months. n its latest Annual Review, the cyber agency said it dealt with 429 incidents in all, and that many were linked to Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) actors - either nation-state actors or highly-capable cyber criminal groups."

UK government ministers wrote to CEOs of FTSE100, FTSE250 and other leading firms urging that cybersecurity become a board-level responsibility. The communication was signed by senior ministers and the heads of the NCSC and National Crime Agency and warned that hostile cyber activity in the UK is becoming more intense, frequent, and sophisticated. Organizations were urged to adopt the Cyber Governance Code of Practice, sign up to the NCSC Early Warning Service, implement Cyber Essentials across supply chains, and note that Cyber Essentials certification can include automatic cyber liability insurance for smaller UK organisations. The NCSC reported a record 204 nationally significant attacks and 429 incidents overall, many linked to APT actors.

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