NCC Group Welcomes the McPartland Review of Cyber Security and Economic Growth

In February, UK Deputy Prime Minister Oliver Dowden and Technology Secretary Michelle Donelan commissioned Rt Hon Stephen McPartland MP to lead an independent review looking at cyber security as an enabler to build trust and resilience and unleash growth across the UK economy.

With a UK General Election just five weeks away and national security and resilience proving to be a key policy issue for the major UK political parties, Stephen McPartland has published his final recommendations for Government.

Engaging more than 350 stakeholders through 26 evidence sessions – including one such session hosted at NCC Group’s Manchester HQ – the Review puts forward 16 proposals to help unlock the full potential of the UK’s cyber sector and ensure that the UK remains at the forefront of cyber innovation. The wide-ranging recommendations cover:

• Incentivising cyber security investment, including a Cyber Charter through which large businesses would share their cyber expertise with third party suppliers, reforms to Companies House, and security controls for small firms opening bank accounts.
• A whole of society approach to cyber skills, stimulating demand for the UK Cyber Security Council’s professional standards, increasing the reach and impact of CyberFirst, investing in public awareness, and updating the school curriculum.
• Introducing ransomware reporting rules, extending the UK police’s Cyber Griffin programme, enhancing information sharing, and making cyber risk a board-level governance matter by promoting the recently published Cyber Governance Code of Practice and placing annual reporting requirements on large businesses.
• Improving the UK’s strategic advantage by establishing a private sector-led solution to product assessment, investing in cybersecure green technologies, continuing the crack down on global cybercrime, and financing exports.

NCC Group’s UK Market Lead, Matt Thomas, welcomes the report, commenting:

“With the prospect of a newly elected government on the horizon, the McPartland Review is a timely and important contribution to UK cyber policy.

In addition to developing a diverse and technically-capable cyber workforce, it is critical that all citizens, including business leaders, have the cyber literacy they need to thrive in a digital economy. We are therefore delighted that our proposals for enhanced public awareness campaigns, embedding cyber in the school curriculum, and focusing on attracting a diverse cyber workforce have been recommended by the Review.

The report also reflects the need for a major cultural shift within company boards. In our response to the Review’s call for evidence, we proposed introducing a duty on directors of large businesses to manage their cyber risk, in line with emerging rules in other jurisdictions globally. It is great to see the Review put forward a similar recommendation.

The Review’s recommendation to improve public datasets on cyber incidents and how they affect businesses and the UK is also to be commended. As the Review notes, the lack of consistent published data makes it difficult to understand difficult to assess cyber risks and measure the effectiveness of security measures. Our recent Digital Dawn report – to which Stephen McPartland very kindly contributed to – concluded that more must be done to promote the concept of 'cyber as a science,' developing cyber metrics and risk quantification to allow risk to be reliably measured and expressed in an informed way.

We would like to thank Stephen McPartland for taking the time to engage so thoroughly with industry and congratulate him on putting together a thoughtful and comprehensive final report. We would urge the incoming governments to digest his recommendations and consider how they might be built into a refreshed UK National Cyber Strategy.”