Andrew Peck, a cyber resilience PhD researcher at Loughborough University who, prior to joining the institute, had a career delivering IT solutions to big industry, healthcare and government, responds to the declarations, which appeared in the Guardian.
“Peter Kyle, the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology has recently stated that the UK is “desperately exposed” to cyber-threats and other strategic big-ticket problems”, said Andrew.
“There is, of course, a political dimension to what he’s saying, but also a reaction to recent cyber events including: the CrowdStrike outages (just last week), ransomware and other cyber attacks on NHS capabilities, an attack on rail infrastructure in France that caused delays in St Pancras, and the ICO reprimanding the Electoral Commission following the conclusion of an investigation into a 2021 hack.
“That’s just the big four since Peter Kyle took over the job so it seems fair to say that he’s ‘not wrong’.
“And, in the 24 hours since drafting this response, Microsoft have acknowledged another cyber attack that’s impacted their services and, in turn, UK utilities providers.”
Andrew continued: “What is refreshing is to see is the UK Science Secretary talking in terms of resilience, and showing a genuine understanding of the dynamic threat picture that builds up the modern world.
“A similar picture exists for practically every country on the planet in today’s world of cyber-physical-social overlaps.
“However, not all countries will be thinking in terms of preparedness and weathering the storm by capacity building and longer-term improvements, like the UK government’s planned Cyber Security and Resilience Bill.
“To make sure that the Bill delivers, and that resilience genuinely grows, the government has a lot of work to do.
“The complexity of our digitally enabled economy means we must consider various interrelated issues, practices, and suppliers to ensure they are appropriately addressed, challenged, and engaged with effectively.
“However, this also presents an enormous opportunity for government, academia and industry to come together and work on the Bill and resilience measures.
“Not only will this benefit the UK, but it’ll also create a template for how to do things that partners and allies around the world can copy.
“Perhaps the most important thing that should happen now is taking the time to imagine worst-case and edge-case incidents and crises from a variety of perspectives.
“This will serve as a critical test for the new Bill, ensuring that the mistakes of COVID and CrowdStrike are not repeated due to a lack of pre-emptive analysis.”
Members of the media can contact m.a.cox@lboro.ac.uk to arrange interviews.
