Taking stock of the 1st anniversary of the NCSC

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) this week marked its first year of operation by revealing a snapshot of its findings from the past 12 months.

According to the NCSC, more than 1,000 incidents were reported to them over the year, with more than half posing a significant threat. None of the incidents reported were classed as category one, involving interference with the democratic system or crippling critical infrastructure such as power, however, the NCSC has warned that more significant and damaging attacks were likely in the near future.

The findings from the NCSC come on the back of the WannaCry and NotPetya ransomware attacks which caused widespread disruption to global brands and the UK’s NHS earlier this year. The findings from the NCSC suggest attacks on that scale will increasingly become the norm.

The work of organizations like the NCSC is hugely important as part of the UK's efforts to deter and defeat cyber crime. It has done a lot to help businesses, particularly on a practical level advising on cyber defences and providing guidance around specific threats. This is on top of the work done to protect our critical national infrastructure in the UK.

The statistics released today show a high number of incidents being reported to the NCSC, and this underlines how important its work is, and why it will remain a key organization for UK plc in the coming years.

This is a timely reminder of the scale of threats businesses face, and why companies of all sizes should make it a priority to get the security basics in place. By doing the simple things like removing user privileges, patching regularly and only allowing approved apps to run businesses can massively reduce the risk they face. It’s not difficult to achieve and it can make a huge difference.