National Cyber Security Centre considers setting up Scottish branch

Digital Scotland map - Image credit: Holyrood

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is to consider setting up a Scottish branch.

Intelligence experts from the centre were in Edinburgh and Glasgow yesterday to meet with counterparts in Scotland to discuss the work they are doing to prevent cyber attacks.

The NCSC representatives met with the Scottish National Cyber Resilience Leaders’ Board and the Scottish Resilience Partnership in Glasgow to discuss the cyber security threat and the role that each will play in combatting it, as well as better joint working between the organisations.

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They also met with representatives from the Scottish Government and Scottish Parliament to discuss incident and risk management.

This follows a ‘brute force’ cyber attack on the Scottish Parliament last month and recent ransomware attacks on the NHS in Scotland and across the UK.

The group also visited the University of Edinburgh, which was named as Scotland’s first UK Government-approved centre of excellence in cyber security research in June.

Ciaran Martin, Chief Executive of the NCSC, said: “We are absolutely committed to helping Scotland benefit from the great opportunities afforded by the digital age and we must all work together to reduce the increasing cyber threats.

“It’s vital that we have good relationships with public sector and business partners in Scotland to mitigate against threats, but when attacks do get through we have robust action plans to defend against them.

“Attacks can take place anywhere, at any time, and the National Cyber Security Centre works in partnership with UK and Scottish Government, industry and citizens in Scotland to make sure that we are as resilient as possible.”

London-based NCSC, which is part of the UK Government intelligence and security agency GCHQ, was launched in October 2016 to be a single central body for cyber security for the whole of the UK.

It carries out threat analysis, manages the most serious national cyber security incidents and provides specialist advice to public sector and business.