The National Cyber Force (NCF) is intended to consolidate offensive cyber activity in the United Kingdom, by enabling an offensive capability to combat security threats, hostile states, terror groups, extremism, hackers, disinformation and election interference.
Organisation
The specialist unit is a joint initiative between the
Ministry of Defence (MOD) and
GCHQ
Government Communications Headquarters, commonly known as GCHQ, is an intelligence and security organisation responsible for providing signals intelligence (SIGINT) and information assurance (IA) to the government and armed forces of the Uni ...
, one of the British
intelligence agencies
An intelligence agency is a government agency responsible for the collection, analysis, and exploitation of information in support of law enforcement, national security, military, public safety, and foreign policy objectives.
Means of informatio ...
.
Around £76m will be invested in the NCF in its first year.
It will operate alongside the
National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which primarily concentrates on defensive cyber activities to protect government departments, strategic infrastructure and industry.
History
Plans for the unit were reported in the media in September 2018. It has since been reported to have been delayed because of "distractions caused by uncertainties over Brexit and frequent changes of ministers and secretaries of state in the MoD"
and
turf war
A turf war is a fight over territory or resources, or may refer to:
Music
* ''Turf Wars'', a 2007 album by the Canadian band Daggermouth
* "Turf War", a song on the 2001 album ''Filmtracks 2000'' by American composer Bill
Television
* '' Turf W ...
s between the MOD and GCHQ.
An April 2021 report produced by academics from King's College London and the Offensive Cyber Working Group has produced a set of recommendations for the NCF, with an aim to increase public debate on offensive cyber in the UK.
In October 2021 it was announced that the NCF will be based in the
village of Samlesbury, as part of a new 'cyber corridor'.
See also
*
UK cyber security community The cyber security (or information assurance) community in the United Kingdom is diverse, with many stakeholders groups contributing to support the '' UK Cyber Security Strategy''. The following is a list of some of these stakeholders.
Governmen ...
*
Joint Operations Cell
Joint Operations Cell is a unit of GCHQ, a British signals intelligence agency, and the National Crime Agency (NCA), a United Kingdom national law enforcement agency. It opened in November 2015 with the intention of tackling a range of crime on the ...
*
Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group The Joint Threat Research Intelligence Group (JTRIG) is a unit of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), the British intelligence agency. The existence of JTRIG was revealed as part of the global surveillance disclosures in documents le ...
*
National Cyber Crime Unit
The National Cyber Crime Unit (NCCU) is a command of the United Kingdom's National Crime Agency. With the creation of the National Crime Agency in 2013, the unit was formed following the merge of the Serious Organised Crime Agency's cyber division ...
*
United States Cyber Command
United States Cyber Command (USCYBERCOM) is one of the eleven unified combatant commands of the United States Department of Defense (DoD). It unifies the direction of cyberspace operations, strengthens DoD cyberspace capabilities, and integr ...
References
{{Reflist
Hacker groups
Hacking (computer security)
GCHQ operations
Ministry of Defence (United Kingdom)