Adrian Johnson
TLDR:
- NCSC plans to launch Advanced Cyber Defence 2.0 to address evolving cyber threats.
- ACD 2.0 will develop a suite of cybersecurity tools and services to fill gaps in the commercial market.
The UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has announced the launch of Advanced Cyber Defence 2.0 to combat evolving cyber threats. This new initiative aims to develop a next-generation suite of cybersecurity tools and services to address gaps in the commercial market. The NCSC will also review current ACD tools and services and plans to divest their management to the private sector where appropriate.
The development of ACD 2.0 comes as a response to the changing cyber threat landscape, including evolving phishing attacks, and the need to provide more comprehensive cybersecurity services. The goal of ACD remains to protect the majority of people in the UK from the majority of harm caused by cyber-attacks.
Since its launch in 2017, ACD has been successful in tackling common attack vectors such as phishing in the government sector. The program has now been made available to all sectors across the UK. The NCSC’s sixth annual ACD report in July 2023 highlighted the program’s growing success, with record-breaking reports of potentially malicious emails and increased compliance with email anti-spoofing controls.
The NCSC will run experiments to develop services in areas such as attack surface management and urged industry collaboration to enhance cybersecurity capabilities. ACD 2.0 aims to be a partnership across the NCSC, government, cybersecurity community, industry, and academia to enhance cyber resilience at scale.
