Formed 2016 | Website NCSC.gov.uk | |
Headquarters Victoria, London, England, United Kingdom Agency executives Ciaran Martin, CEO
Dr Ian Levy, Technical Director Parent agency Government Communications Headquarters | ||
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is an organisation of the United Kingdom Government that provides advice and support for the public and private sector in how to avoid cyber threats. Based in London, it became operational in October 2016, and its parent organisation is GCHQ.
History
The NCSC absorbed and replaced the CESG (the information security arm of GCHQ), the Centre for Cyber Assessment (CCA), Computer Emergency Response Team UK (CERT UK) and the cyber-related responsibilities of the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI). It built on earlier efforts of these organisations and the Cabinet Office to provide guidance on Information Assurance to the UK's wider private sector, such as the "10 Steps" guidance released in January 2015. In pre-launch announcements, the UK government stated that the NCSC would first work with the Bank of England to advise financial institutions on how to bolster online defences.
The centre was first announced in November 2015 by the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osborne. The existing Director General Cyber of GCHQ, Ciaran Martin, will lead the new centre, and GCHQ's current Technical Director of Cyber Security, Dr Ian Levy, will assume the same role at the NCSC.
The centre was dedicated by the Queen on February 14, 2017. Philip Hammond, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, announced an investment of £1.9 billion and an initiative to embed 100 people from industry into the NCSC on secondment.
In April 2016, the Ministry of Defence announced that a Cyber Security Operations Centre (CSOC) will contribute to this initiative. The likely location for the CSOC will be MoD Corsham.