NCSC CEO talks need to know key and critical assets.
The CEO of the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre has emphasised the importance of collaboration to deliver a secure election process.
Speaking at the Black Hat conference in Las Vegas, Felicity Oswald said the NCSC worked closely with partners across government, industry and with international allies to ensure security measures were in place ahead of the July election.
According to an NCSC statement, Oswald said protecting elections in cyberspace requires long-term planning and vigilance to effectively halt online threats, and highlighted that, while the act of voting in the UK is carried out with pencil and paper, there is significant digital infrastructure which needs to be made secure.
Also, individuals and organisations involved in the electoral processes needed to be protected from capable cyber actors, as well as ensuring the integrity of the online information environment.
Know Your Key Assets
Asked by moderator Christina Cassidy about election security, Oswald said the importance of knowing your key assets, knowing your critical assets, knowing what risks might happen is vital.
Oswald said, “Some of those [problems] will be malicious, sometimes they will be accidental. Sometimes they'll be caused by who knows what, and knowing what your plan is.
“It's the basics of any I have worked for some time as emergency primary government is the basics of planning for anything, you have plan for the worst and hope for the best.”
Written by
Dan Raywood
Senior Editor
SC Media UK
Dan Raywood is a B2B journalist with more than 20 years of experience, including covering cybersecurity for the past 16 years. He has extensively covered topics from Advanced Persistent Threats and nation-state hackers to major data breaches and regulatory changes.
He has spoken at events including 44CON, Infosecurity Europe, RANT Conference, BSides Scotland, Steelcon and ESET Security Days.
Outside work, Dan enjoys supporting Tottenham Hotspur, managing mischievous cats, and sampling craft beers.
