National Cyber Force (NCF) in Samlesbury to defend the UK from hackers
National Cyber Force (NCF) takes shape to defend UK from state hackers, cybercriminals and other online national security threats. The point of Giuseppe Gagliano.
The UK center for offensive cyber operations aimed at dismantling state hacking groups, cybercriminals and other online threats to national security will have a permanent headquarters in Samlesbury, Lancashire.
First announced last year, the National Cyber Force (NCF) is a joint venture of the Ministry of Defense (MoD) and the GCHQ intelligence service and brings together intelligence, cyber and security personnel from the MoD and GCHQ, along with the MI6 Secret Intelligence Service personnel and the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory (DSTL). It is the first time that the personnel of each corps will be united under a unified command.
The NCF's new permanent headquarters in Samlesbury, just outside Preston – and formerly the home of a BAE Systems military aircraft factory – is within easy reach of GCHQ's Manchester office. The force will also work with law enforcement agencies and international partners to help counter a range of national security threats in what is described as a "legal, ethical and proportionate way."
Previously disclosed offensive cyber operations carried out by the UK include a sustained cyber campaign against Daesh in 2016, as well as the use of cyber attacks against ISIS propaganda networks in 2018. It is hoped that the potential of offensive cyber operations will deter hostile forces from waging their own campaigns against the UK.
The National Cyber Force will help counter the aggressive behavior of malicious actors and demonstrate that Britain is investing in next generation defense capability to protect our people and help our friends counter cyber threats. In short, it sends a powerful message to both our allies and adversaries, said Foreign Minister Liz Truss.
However, while the government is keen to promote the NCF as a body that can help protect the UK from cyber attacks, particularly those from hostile nation states, there are limits to what it can do. One of the largest and most significant cyber attacks to hit the UK in recent years was the WannaCry ransomware attack, which disrupted significant parts of the NHS – it's unclear how the NCF could have prevented this attack, if not altogether.
This is a machine translation from Italian language of a post published on Start Magazine at the URL https://www.startmag.it/mondo/a-samlesbury-la-national-cyber-force-ncf-per-difendere-il-regno-unito-dagli-hacker/ on Sun, 10 Oct 2021 07:23:36 +0000.