Cyber Up Campaign react to the Government’s new National Cyber Strategy

A CyberUp Campaign spokesperson said:

“The Government’s National Cyber Strategy (NCS) published today represents a missed opportunity to introduce a truly 21st century cyber crime law, following the Home Office review of the 31-year old Computer Misuse Act (CMA) earlier in the year. The CyberUp Campaign has called for reform of the Act to include a statutory defence to better enable ethical cyber security researchers to support the UK’s national cyber resilience.

“Of course, with the review ongoing, we still feel optimistic that these proposals are imminent. That is because so many of the ambitions set out in the NCS would be furthered by these reforms. Solidifying the UK as a global cyber power, ensuring the whole of society – not just Government – plays it part, strengthening the law enforcement response to cyber crime, making better use of threat intelligence networks, growing cyber security skills – all of these are very noble goals and we welcome that there is much in the NCS that will set Britain on a path to achieving them. But it is disappointing that the Government haven’t yet recognised how much these efforts would be bolstered by unleashing the potential of the country’s world-leading cyber industry through our CMA reform proposals.

“Similarly, we welcome many of the NCS’s new initiatives, including the Royal Charter for the profession administered by the UK Cyber Security Council and the National Cyber Advisory Board (NCAB) bringing together senior leaders from the private sector to support and inform the Government’s approach to cyber issues. These initiatives prove that the Government do recognise the role of the private sector in the UK’s national cyber defence – but only time will tell if the Government are really serious about making this partnership function better, because that would involve listening to the sector’s marquee ask for a statutory defence in the Computer Misuse Act.”