Tough new cyber laws will strengthen UK’s defences against online attacks, says PCC

Credit: Better Times for the Derbyshire PCC

Police and Crime Commissioner Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts has welcomed plans to make online public services safer and more secure to protect the public from cybercrime.

The Derbyshire PCC, who is Joint National Lead for Cybercrime on behalf of the Association of Police and Crime Commissioners (APCC) and sits of the Board of the East Midlands Cyber Resilience Centre, said the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, which had its second reading in the House of Commons last week, would better protect British businesses and vital public services like the NHS from cyber criminals.

The Bill sets out clear expectations for firms providing services to government to increase their cyber resilience including energy and water suppliers and healthcare and data centres.

Last year, 11,000 NHS appointments and procedures were lost due to cyber-attacks. These attacks cost UK businesses approximately £15bn per year.

As part of a wider Cyber Action Plan, backed by more than £210m of government funding, new measures will respond to a growing range of threats to increase confidence among the public that their data and services are being protected.

The Plan aims to:

• Increase the visibility of digital resilience risks.
• Promote stronger, joined-up action across departments on severe and complex risks with a dedicated team coordinating the response.
• Deliver a faster response to threats and incidents to minimise harm and speed up recovery.
• Develop higher resilience across government to protect critical services.

Police and Crime Commissioner Nicolle Ndiweni-Roberts said: “I welcome the introduction of new powers to protect critical public services from online cyber criminals.
“The public rely daily on energy, water, transport, healthcare and other suppliers. These proposals would force organisations to meet higher security standards while also subjecting them to increased regulation to reduce the risk of disruption, better protect customer data and make them less vulnerable to attack.

“We live in an age where reliance on digital services is high and ever growing. This landmark legislation will boost our defences against increasingly complex threats, and I look forward to seeing the Bill’s progression through Parliament.”