The UK has recently opened its new National Cyber Security Centre,
which is part of a £1.9bn five-year strategy by the UK government to
tackle cyber crime. The aim of this strategy is to make the UK one of
the hardest targets for cybercrime, but since the launch of this new
strategy, there seems to be a more pressing question on everyone’s mind.
Does the UK have enough employees trained to enhance the UK’s
cybersecurity?

NCSC chief executive officer Ciaran Martin said that the main
aim of the centre is to ‘make the UK the safest place to live and do
business online’. Which is good timing as the ISC
(an organisation for security professionals), has released a survey
that states that 66% of UK firms are currently understaffed and do not
have enough specialists to tackle the growing problem. The survey has
predicted that around the world the shortfall of cyber security workers
will reach 1.8m over the next five years, this is a 20% increase of the
predictions they made in 2015.

The NCSC will aim to tackle this problem as it will bring
together government bodies, intelligence agencies, private businesses
and the public, to work together in the fight against cybercrime.
Chancellor Philip Hammond
has said that Britain is transforming its capabilities in cyber defence
and deterrence. He states that it is ‘crucial that we take this action
to defend ourselves’, but many will say there is a lot of pressure on
the organisation to not let this staffing issue affect their efforts.

The recent Hiscox
Cyber-Readiness Report surveyed over 3,000 organisations in the United
States, Germany and UK, and found that more than 53% of these
organisations are ill prepared in terms of their cyber security. Many
even went as far as to describe themselves as cyber novices, proving
that experts in these areas are in the minority. Even though the report
did find that UK organisations are less likely to be attacked than their
US or German counterparts, still 55% of UK organisations involved had
experienced an attack within the last year. According to the results of
the survey, the main industries that seem to be affected are technology,
media, and telecoms, with 45% of organisations in these industries
reporting two or more incidents. Overall the study found that the
evolving nature of online security threats was seen as the most
significant challenge to security by 70% of those participating in the
research.

Overall the new initiative by the government does seem to mean that
the UK is heading in the right direction to ensure that it has the means
and the resources to protect itself and increase cyber security.