Yesterday 17th July 24, a new Cyber Security Bill was announced as part of the King’s Speech with industry experts and cyber security firms and advisory boards applauding the greater scrutiny and policies being placed on protecting the nation, our public services, critical infrastructure, and businesses – small, medium, and large.

The bill, will hand more power to regulators around cybersecurity incidents – and also includes a mandate reporting for ransomware attacks. The bill was announced in today’s King’s Speech, alongside 40 others.

In parallel, a new Digital Information and Smart Data Bill also announced, would have security concerns and implications if this Cyber Security Bill had not also been announced since one of it’s aims is to further support and speed up the digitising of more central and local government services as well as bring in new data-sharing standards, whilst giving the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) new powers.

CyberSecurity – State of the nation

The newly introduced Cyber Security Bill acknowledges that the UK as a whole faces increasing attacks from both financially-motivated cyber criminals and state actors, with entities of all sizes being frequent targets. The bill was proposed in response to cyber attacks on the UK’s digital economy, which have affected public services and infrastructure. Its aim is to enhance the protection of essential services and critical national infrastructure, which are particularly vulnerable to hostile actors. This is underscored by numerous cyber attacks in recent years on the NHS, NHS Blood supply, UK Trusts, the Ministry of Defence, the British Library, the Electoral Commission, Royal Mail, and various other government entities.

Life vs Death- The NHS Blood Supply Attack: The announcement comes after a severe Russian cyber-attack on Synnovis, a private firm offering pathology services like blood tests to the NHS. As a result of the attack, some patients were notified that their blood test appointments could be delayed by up to six months. It also affected supply of blood and much needed transfusions.

What’s in the Cyber Security Bill?

The new Cyber Security Bill consists of two main objectives.

1. To expand the remit of existing regulation
2. Provide regulators with a stronger foundation for the protection of digital services and supply chains, and enhance reporting requirements to develop a more comprehensive understanding of cyber threats.

The bill will expand the remit of regulators to cover supply chains and companies providing service/managed services to organisations – addressing the growing prevalence of supply-side attacks, where malicious actors gain access to organisation’s networks and systems via third-party suppliers such as MSPs, network providers and CSP providers or though APIs and systems which connect to other systems for things such as stock control, support and remote access. The bill also promises to create a stronger regulatory environment to ensure cyber safety measures are actually being introduced.

What about NIS2?

The Cyber Security Bill aims to revise the current UK Network and Information Security (NIS) Regulations 2018. These regulations originate from the EU’s NIS Directive, which outlines specific cybersecurity and incident reporting duties for operators of ‘essential services’ and digital service providers.

The EU has initiated an update to the original NIS framework, with ‘NIS2’ scheduled for implementation across EU member states by 17 October 2024. Whilst ‘NIS2’ does not expliciitly apply to UK companies, this bill is likley to align closely to it and may even add “icing on top”.

About mandatory reporting on ransomware attacks

Today, whilst organisations need to report data breaches, there is no law/rule about reporting ransomware attacks. This bill changes this. This is a good move since, introducing the requirement to report of ransomware attacks (whether successful or not) will help the UK better understand the wider cybercrime landscape.

What the Cyber Security Bill means for IT and Security Teams

Cyber Secrity and protection remains one of the biggest threats to organisations and government today and remains one of the biggest budget spends which continues to see an year on year increase along side AI of course.

As we live in an increasingly digital society across almost every industry and service, every organisation needs to have, and will be obligned under the new bill, to have robust security governance and controls in place. Organisations need to shift away from simply deploying products in the hope they will stop attacks and instead ensure they also have effective data on attack vectors and trends as well as having clear kill chain risk analysis and mapping across their entire estate from users and devices, to identity and access, data protection, threat detection, isolution, remiation and of course prevention.

In the context of state-sponsored attacks, national conflicts, and wars, it is evident that cyber attacks have become a standard component of such conflicts, targeting infrastructure, governments, and individuals alike. The Cyber Security Bill emphasizes that sectors such as communications, power, finance, health, education, and transportation, including traffic control systems, are all potential targets.

Cyber Security Bill – Things you can do

The new Cyber Security and upcoming NIS2 requirement presents several opportunities for organisations to prepare and get ready which shoudl underpin their existing cyber security and resiliance programme.

In Cyber Security report by Microsoft earlier, Microsoft Security said that they have seen a ten fold increase in cyber attacks along with a similar attack attempot growth of their own platforms and systems include Microsoft 365 and Azure.

Microsoft say that passwords and account compromose (often leading to phisghing attacks and ransomware attacks) continue to rise the fastest with password attacks per month increasing from 3 Billion attacks per month in 2022, to more than 30 Billion a month in 2023.

Microsoft also say that the UK CyberSecurity market in the UK worth $6.2bn in FY25 and is said to continue to increase at around 20% YoY for the next 4 years. For Microsoft, they see the following key areas of security being of the biggest opportunoity driven by customer demand to protect their businesses and critical infraastucture.

• Threat Protection – $2.4bn
• Identity Protection & Secure Access – $2.2bn
• Security Analytics – $1.6bn

Note: Values are UK TAM for 2025.

Consulting, Assessments and Workshops

Leverage your security partners to help you conduct comprehenise reviews.

Many Cyber Security partners have pre-packaged (often vendor funded) offerings to help businesses of all sizes, through the delivery of tailoured, comprehensive workshops and assessments around the core Zero Trust Security Pillars which loosely fit into the catagories above.

The Cyber Security bill strengthens the powers of regulators, which is likley to lead to more frequent and rigorous security assessments and audits. This means you will likely need to prove you are undertaking these regualry and that you have clear, definaed and proven attack simulation plans, prevent and detect and remediation plans in place.

Security Adoption and Consolidation

In the ever-evolving landscape of cybersecurity, the complexity of security has become a significant challenge for many organisations. With an average of 76 security tools to manage, info sec magazine reports that many organisations are overwhelmed by excessive support tickets, ungainly rulesets, redundant alerts, and cumbersome integrations of different often overlapping security products. This complexity can lead to gaps in security, making organisations vulnerable to cyber threats and huge costs.

As part of any review and assessment, contract renewal and negotiation, most organisations can strengthen their security posture while reducing both spend and complexity through a strategy known as security consolidation. This involves streamlining and integrating various security tools and processes into a cohesive system and leveraging/adopting many of the technologies they may already have but have not turned on – examples of this are the vast security products and services offered in Microsoft 365 E5 which may be under-used or not switched on.

Security consolidation super important is essential for several reasons. Firstly, it can enhances threat detection and response by providing a holistic view of security events, facilitating faster identification of anomalies and coordinated response strategies pulling information from products and suits of products rather than trying to connect. Secondly, it simplifies management and operations, making it easier for security teams to manage and operate, leading to increased efficiency and effectiveness in managing cybersecurity risks. Thirdly, it can massively reduces complexity and cost by eliminating redundant systems and streamlining processes, improving the security posture, and reducing the chances of errors.

The National Cyber Security Centre provides a wealth of resources and guidance on various cybersecurity topics, including security consolidation.

Managed SOC and XDR

In light of the cyber security bill, organisations may consider moving to a Managed Security Operations Centre (SoC) or Managed Extended Detection and Response (XDR) service offered from their MSP provider, CSP provider or specialist Managed Security Provider. These service provide a huge a range of benefits for organisations who dont have the time, resources or desire to manage their security operations including:

1. Comprehensive Cybersecurity: Managed SoC and XDR services provide comprehensive cybersecurity across an organisations entire IT environment – monitoring threat landscapes, including IT networks, devices, applications, endpoints, and data, for both known and evolving vulnerabilities, threats, and risks.
2. Reduced Complexity: In most cases, investing in such services can significantly reduce the complexity of managing multiple security tools and processes. Whilst these services “may” take on and suppoprt an organisation’s existing security products , in many cases they will require (as part of onboarding) a more steamlined approach to security management, making it easier for organisations to maintain a robust security posture without having to manage multiple products and services.
3. Faster Response Times: Managed SoC and XDR services can provide significantly faster and more accurate detection and response times to real and high-risk potential threats. Many will leverage their vast experience, Machine Learning and other advanced technologies like AI and automation to make threat detection and response faster than humanly possible.
4. More Cost-Effective: Whilst not cheap on the surface, consolidating security operations under a managed service, organisations can potentially reduce the total cost of ownership (TCO) of securioty operations, by eliminating the need for multiple standalone security solutions and sometimes expensive security analysts and consultants.
5. Access to Expertise: These services give organisations access to highly skilled security experts, which can be particularly beneficial given the current shortage of skills in the cybersecurity industry.

Employee Training and Education

The importance of end-user adoption and training around security awareness must not be overstated. It is a critical component of an any organisation’s cybersecurity strategy. The human factor is often the weakest link in corporate security, with studies suggesting that most cyber attacks are caused by human error. Educating end users on cybersecurity best practices is crucial for reducing the risk of insider threats, phishing attacks, and other cyber threats.

Every business, large and small, needs to develop an effective security strategy mindset that is built into their culture. This ensures that every employee, from frontline staff to managers and executives, understands the importance of cybersecurity and the far-reaching impact that a data breach can have. This means that regular training sessions and awareness needs to be conducted to keep all levels of the organisation updated on the latest threats and defensive practices.

Management plays a key role in this process. They should demonstrate leadership by actively participating in security awareness training, complying with the company’s own cybersecurity policies, and encouraging staff to participate in trainings. This helps to create a culture of enhanced cybersecurity awareness and empowering employees to come forward with observations, suggestions or issues they have seen.

End-user adoption and training around security awareness is a commitment that needs to be made at all levels of an organisation. It is not just about protecting the organisation’s digital assets, but also about safeguarding its reputation and credibility. By making security awareness a priority, organisations can significantly reduce their vulnerability to cyber threats.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the King’s Speech has outlined a much needed robust and forward-thinking approach to cybersecurity in light of the every increasing wave of state nation and cyber terrorism combined with the rapid adoption of generative AI.

The introduction of the Cyber Security and Resilience Bill, as announced in the speech, is set to expand regulation to cover more digital services and supply chains, empower regulators to ensure cybersecurity measures, and mandate increased incident reporting to improve the government’s response to cyber attacks. This initiative is a significant step towards strengthening the UK’s cybersecurity infrastructure and resilience.

In light of these developments, every organisations should take proactive steps to align with these new measures. One of the key steps is preparing for the NIS2 Directive, which aims to establish a higher level of cybersecurity and resilience within organisations of the European Union and will also impact UK organisations. Organisations should start preparing by defining their compliance roadmap and optimising their cybersecurity awareness. They should conduct a thorough audit to identify gaps in their cybersecurity regimen and develop a comprehensive plan to address these gaps and achieve compliance with NIS2 requirements.

Read more:

What is NIS2? What is NIS2? Get the Complete Picture (nis2directive.eu)

National Cyber Security Centre: National Cyber Security Centre – NCSC.GOV.UK