Lindy Cameron outlines importance of global allies to beat online threats at international conference

Speaking at the prestigious Cyber Week hosted by Tel Aviv University earlier today (Tuesday), Lindy Cameron said: “we are absolutely committed to working together to protect our citizens and build confidence in a digital future.”

The CEO of the UK NCSC – which is a part of world-leading intelligence agency GCHQ – described Israel as “a long standing, like-minded and highly capable partner”, focusing on the strength of relationship in tackling shared threats from cyber criminals and state actors that work to harm both nations.

Lindy Cameron used her speech to highlight ransomware as an example of a major threat that both nations face:

“Ransomware continues to represent the most likely disruptive threat in cyber security – and the growth in incidents has brought an increase in public awareness to the risk it poses.

“The malicious use of software to make data or systems unusable until the victim makes a payment has been a practice for some time. But recently this has reached a new level of international concern with the volume and complexity of incidents with a global reach, such as the one affecting American-based IT company Kaseya.

“The groups behind such criminal behaviour operate beyond our borders, and collectively there is both a challenge and an opportunity for us to work together to make sure there are no safe havens.”

She also warned against the illegal and irresponsible use of capabilities by cyber actors:

“We now see states that cannot build high end capability being able to buy it.

“We believe the cyber security threats we face are shared globally. So it is vital that all cyber actors use capabilities in a way that is legal, responsible and proportionate to ensure cyberspace remains a safe and prosperous place for everyone. And we will work with allies to achieve this.”

Describing cyber security as a “global team sport” in which continued cooperation on cyber issues is mutually beneficial to both sides’ interests, she said:

“COVID has been a shared challenge across the world – and like coronavirus, cyber security does not recognise geographic borders. Nations face shared threats from cyber criminals and state actors who seek to do our nations harm. And we can learn so much from one another.

“Operational collaboration between our agencies – and many other agencies represented at this conference – is strong and well developed. It focuses on exchanges of threat reporting and analysis of trends, something I am pleased to say continued successfully throughout lockdown.

“The UK and its allies share a belief that a nation’s cyber security cannot simply be done by one government organisation. Everybody has their part to play – public sector, private sector and citizens. And the NCSC and INCD here in Israel both see partnering with the private sector as an explicit priority and have pioneered taking this to a different level .”

Lindy Cameron also highlighted a practical example of how Israel and the UK’s relationship could have an immediate impact on improving each country’s cyber knowledge and understanding:

“We were delighted when the Software Security Knowledge Area of the UK’s Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (also known as CyBOK) was recently translated into Hebrew, with our permission, at the request of an Israel National Cyber Directorate (INCD).

“The CyBOK is an NCSC-sponsored guide distilling the knowledge of the world’s leading cyber security experts. It’s not a short read, but through this sharing of expertise, we all grow stronger together.

“Israel is a cyber nation. You don’t have to dive too deep into the Israeli cyber eco-system to find inspiration. So much of what any country achieves in cyber security depends on its work with international allies – because the stronger any one of us is, the stronger we all will become.”

A full transcript of today’s speech is supplied below.

It is a pleasure to join you here in Tel Aviv for Cyber Week.

It’s been nearly a year since I was appointed as Chief Executive of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre, but because of COVID-19 this is the first chance I’ve had to make an international visit and meet my counterparts in person.

And it’s fitting that my first post-pandemic trip is here at Tel Aviv Cyber Week, which brings together international heads of agencies, industry and academia around the world and allows us to hear from each other and learn from the Israeli experience.

These events are absolutely vital in terms of bringing the sector together – something we in the UK do annually through our CYBERUK conference, which we held virtually this year but hope to host in Wales next year.

Coronavirus response

Firstly I would like to reflect on the last 18 months of cyber security in a pandemic.

Coronavirus has brought a dramatic change in the way we all work and live our lives, and technology has been a great support through this difficult period. We as a cyber security community understand better than most how technology has changed our lives for the better. But even we could not have foreseen how vital technology would have been to sustaining our lives and economies in the pandemic.

The last 18 months has seen a huge growth in remote working and digital services – meaning cyber security has never been so important.

So we in NCSC put citizens first. Our Cyber Aware campaign has helped to empower citizens to keep themselves safe online – asking them to adopt six behaviours that keep them safe from the majority of online harms. I’d encourage you all to visit www.cyberaware.gov.uk to see our advice.

But in addition to helping individuals, the NCSC has been committed to supporting institutions.

When the coronavirus threat was growing in March 2020, we in the NCSC quickly established a surge effort to support the UK government’s response.

Our focus has always been about reducing harm to the UK. We have done so by preventing harm with our Active Cyber Defence programme, and through coordinating the nation’s response to the most harmful incidents that do get through.

Since being stood up in October 2016, our Incident Management team has managed more than 3,000 incidents.

And we have sustained this through the pandemic, with our specific focus quickly pivoting to safeguarding our most vital services, like health, from threats like ransomware.

We prioritised getting intelligence from our experts in London and Cheltenham to the healthcare front line across the country – sharing tens of thousands of indicators of compromise to enable mitigating action by local IT experts in hospitals.

We also ensured health service colleagues benefited from our incident support teams to ensure minimal response and recovery times, as well as rolling out protective DNS.

We protected the cyber security of essential service providers that ensure society functions. Drawing on our technical, operational and engagement expertise, the NCSC has engaged with around 5,000 organisations to help strengthen their resilience to online harms.

But it has not just been about health. Our work has included everything from helping to ensure food reaches supermarkets to the UK production of ventilators and vaccines. The NCSC has also supported the vulnerability management and security architect support for the UK’s Test & Trace system and helped protect key communication channels to UK citizens from being abused by criminals.

Israel as a strong international partner

But COVID has been a shared challenge across the world – and [a bit] like coronavirus, cyber security does not recognise geographic borders.

Nations face shared threats from cyber criminals and state actors who seek to do our nations harm. And we can learn so much from one another.

Cyber security is a global team sport, and continued cooperation on cyber issues is always in all our best interests.

So, it’s great to be here today. Israel serves as a central part of the global cyber eco-system – and we are absolutely committed to working together to protect our citizens and build confidence in a digital future.

We were delighted when the Software Security Knowledge Area of the UK’s Cyber Security Body of Knowledge (also known as CyBOK) was last year translated into Hebrew, with our permission, at the request of the Israel National Cyber Directorate.

The CyBOK is an NCSC-sponsored guide distilling the knowledge of the world’s leading cyber security experts. it’s not a short read, but through this sharing of expertise, we all grow stronger together.

As you all know better than me, Israel is a cyber nation. You don’t have to dive too deep into the Israeli cyber eco-system to find inspiration.

The UK-Israel cyber security relationship is built on the long-standing ties of an enduring national security alliance. Operational collaboration between our agencies – and many other agencies represented at this conference – is strong and well developed. It focuses on exchanges of threat reporting and analysis of trends, something I am pleased to say continued successfully throughout the challenge of COVID.

We want these international cyber partnerships to go from strength-to-strength and we will continue to collaborate against shared threats and conduct technical exchanges across a broad spectrum of work

The UK and its allies share a belief that a nation’s cyber security cannot simply be done by one government organisation. Everybody has their part to play – public sector, private sector and citizens. NCSC and INCD here in Israel both see partnering with the private sector as an explicit priority and have pioneered taking this to a different level.

This week I am very much looking forward to visiting organisations within CyberSpark – the Cyber Innovation Arena in Be’er Shiva. Prior to launching the NCSC in 2017, my predecessors visited Be’er Shiva and took many insights away which have inspired our subsequent work.

Thanks to major government funding, Be’er Shiva has rapidly emerged as a leading technical hub.

In addition to housing the INCD CERT, it has become a hotbed of private sector digital innovation, comprised of university researchers, industry experts and military veterans.

We in the UK share its vision of bringing sectors together to build and grow a nation’s cyber sector.

Be’er Shiva has served as one of the inspirations for Cyber Central, the first part of the UK’s ‘Golden Valley’ development – which will be based in Cheltenham, the home to the NCSC’s parent organisation, GCHQ.

Cyber Central will be a hive of industry collaboration, ranging from tech giants to start-ups as well as academia and government. It aims to be the primary UK hub for cyber-related activity, and one of the most prominent clusters globally

It is absolutely vital that a system is created where cyber security can thrive. Removing any barriers preventing brilliant minds from entering the industry is a cause I’m pleased both of our countries share, as we all need a diverse future workforce.

I know Israel is committed to helping teenagers from under-represented groups to work in cyber security. The Magshimim social-action programme identifies gifted students and trains them in after-school coding, encryption and cyber security classes

We share this desire to foster career paths for young people through the NCSC’s CyberFirst and UK Government’s Cyber Discovery initiatives. Both introduce young people with a passion for computing to the intricacies and opportunities of cyber security.

More than 55,000 young people in the UK have taken part in the NCSC’s CyberFirst courses and CyberFirst Girls competition, which aims to address gender imbalances in the industry – a cause close to my heart. Since launching in 2017, 43,000 girls from all over the UK have taken part in our annual CyberFirst Girls contest.

And, we have also developed CyberFirst Bursaries – which offers undergraduates financial assistance and paid cyber security training.

This also drew inspiration from Israel, where the Talpiot programme has paved the way for hundreds of careers that yielded countless scientific breakthroughs since launching back in 1979. Different approaches, sharing the same objective – getting students into the cyber security profession.

Shared threat / International governance

As well as shared visions and resources, I’d like to touch on shared threats between the UK and Israel.

Many of the threats we face in cyber security are shared globally. It is vital that all cyber actors use capabilities in a way that is legal, responsible and proportionate to ensure cyberspace remains a safe and prosperous place for everyone.

And the UK works closely with our allies around the world to tackle cyber threats and improve our global resilience to attacks.

Ransomware continues to represent the most likely disruptive threat in cyber security – and the growth in incidents has brought an increase in public awareness to the risk it poses.

The malicious use of software to make data or systems unusable until the victim makes a payment has been a practice for some time. But recently this has reached a new level of international concern with the volume and complexity of incidents with a global reach, such as the one affecting American-based IT company Kaseya.

The groups behind such criminal behaviour operate beyond our borders, and collectively there is both a challenge and an opportunity for us to work together to make sure there are no safe havens.

The NCSC’s position on ransomware is clear – we praise organisations that do not pay criminals. The payment of ransoms is no guarantee that you will get your data back and the fewer times a method is successful, the fewer times it will be used.

So what can we do? Firstly, the obvious – we must encourage companies in our nations to do the basics right to make this harder. The NCSC sets out this guidance for UK organisations on our website. Better resilience protects against a wide range of threats.

In terms of international collaboration there is a need for close sharing on operational information and protective measures.

We need to look not only at the cyber crime groups but at the things that underpin their success – and not just ransomware as a service, but also the criminal market place and malicious crypto currency practices.

The groups behind such criminal behaviour operate beyond our borders, and collectively there is both a challenge and an opportunity for us to work together internationally to make sure there are no places that effectively serve as safe havens.

Over the next few years the challenge will be to work collectively to establish good practice in this sector and efficient export controls in our respective countries.

But focusing on the current threat of ransomware is not to underestimate the cyber security threat from state actors.

As I have said before, state actions are a reality in cyberspace. Four nation states – China, Russia, North Korea and Iran, have been a constant presence in recent years.

Indeed, only yesterday we joined colleagues in the European Union, Canada and the United States of America in confirming that Chinese state-backed actors were responsible for gaining access to computer networks via Microsoft Exchange servers.

And as I have also said before, we now see states that cannot build high end capability being able to buy it.

We believe the cyber security threats we face are shared globally. So it is vital that all cyber actors use capabilities in a way that is legal, responsible and proportionate to ensure cyberspace remains a safe and prosperous place for everyone.

That’s why we work with allies to achieve this.

Conclusion

So much of what any country achieves in cyber security depends on its work with international allies, and this is certainly true of both the UK and Israel, and others here today.

We each have much to be proud of in our domestic cyber security capabilities – and by working together, these only strengthen.

We look forward to continuing and improve our international collaboration – through sharing threat intelligence, calling out adversaries or sharing best practice… and lessons learned when things don’t go so well.

Because the UK and its allies share a passion for helping our citizens make the most of the digital age. And we are absolutely committed to working together to protect our citizens and build confidence in a digital future.

This is not something we can achieve overnight and I hope we continue to work together and inspire one another – because the stronger any one of us is, the stronger we all will become.