Dr Richard Horne, CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of signals intelligence agency GCHQ, has said that the country is facing a “perfect storm” for cyber security against the backdrop of a new “technological revolution”.
Dr Richard Horne said that the meeting of rapid technological change driven by developments in AI and geopolitical tensions are giving rise to a period of “tumultuous uncertainty”.
Speaking to the CYBERUK conference in Glasgow, Dr Horne said that as the technology landscape develops, the definition of cyber security is expanding with it.
In the future, it will be vital to secure technology that will control robotics, autonomous systems and technology that is physically integrated with human bodies – all of which is “way beyond” the definition of cyber security as it was understood and practised a decade ago and will require organisations to continually reimagine cyber security.
He called on those working in the field to lead a “cultural shift” within organisations, adding that, amidst the uncertainty, it is clear what actions need to be taken to maintain collective resilience.
“Cyber security is the responsibility of everyone, whether they sit on the Board or the IT help desk… cyber security is part of their mission,” Dr Horne said.
Dr Horne said that “organisations that do not focus on their technology base…as core to their prosperity … are no longer just naïve but are failing to grasp the reality of today’s world.”
Speaking about the cyber threat landscape, Dr Horne said that the number of incidents dealt with by the NCSC remains “fairly steady”. However, there has been a change in where the attacks are coming from as “the majority of the nationally significant incidents that the NCSC is handling now originate directly or indirectly from nation states.”
Dr Horne also outlined that cyberspace is part of the contested space “between peace and war”. He will outline that the UK’s cyber agency is seeing Russia applying lessons it has learnt on the battlefield in the illegal invasion of Ukraine and “moving them beyond the battlefield.”
He said that conflicts around the world in the past year have shown that “cyber operations are now integral to conflict” and that “cyber security is the home front”.
Addressing the recent discussion about new frontier AI models, Dr Horne said, “Frontier AI is rapidly enabling discovery and exploitation of existing vulnerabilities at scale, illustrating how quickly it will expose where fundamentals of cyber security are still to be addressed.”
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