Security News > 2021 > October > Russia-based criminals are still the UK's number 1 cyber-foe, NSO Group's wares a 'red flag' says NCSC chief

A new national cyber strategy will be launched by year-end, the National Cyber Security Centre's chief exec has promised - while calling out spyware vendor NSO Group as a "Red flag" for the UK infosec community.

Lindy Cameron told the Chatham House international affairs think tank that NSO Group was "Something we raised a red flag about before, that the commercial market for sophisticated cyber exploitation products is an issue."

The wide-ranging speech saw Cameron setting out her vision and priorities for the NCSC, having formally taken up the CEO post a year ago.

"In the future," vowed Cameron, the NCSC "Will take a principles based approach to security functionality, and put much more emphasis and proportionality on the engineering practices of the developer. Rather than just running through a checklist of criteria that need to be met."

The new national cyber strategy may also include greater integration with the new National Cyber Force hacking unit, bearing in mind ministerial pledges from 2019 that committed Britain to hacking back at countries whose attack crews tampered with UK systems.

"How China evolves in the next decade will probably be the biggest single driver of our future cyber security," she said.

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2021/10/11/ncsc_ceo_speech_chatham_house/