Chapter 4 – Protect Our People 41 4.109 We will improve our national ability to respond quickly and effectively to cyber attack. We will create a new National Cyber Centre to lead this response. Operating under GCHQ leadership, it will manage our future operational response to cyber incidents, ensuring that we can protect the UK against serious attacks and minimise their impact. We will pursue a robust policy of challenging those who attempt to use cyber capabilities to cause the UK harm. 4.110 We all have a role to play in protecting computers, networks and data. We will improve the way government protects its data by applying appropriately high standards of cyber security to government systems, introducing stronger defences for our systems and maintaining public confidence in our online government services. We will build a new secure, cross-government network to improve joint working on sensitive cyber issues. 4.111 We will help companies and the public to do more to protect their own data from cyber threats, providing specialist information to those who need it. This will include simplifying private sector access to government cyber security advice, and our new National Cyber Centre will form a single point of contact for companies seeking advice. Our approach to protecting CNI is described later in this chapter. 4.112 The Government will ensure that our Armed Forces have strong cyber defences, and that in the event of a significant cyber incident in the UK, they are ready to provide assistance. We will provide the Armed Forces with advanced offensive cyber capabilities, drawing on the National Offensive Cyber Programme which is run in partnership between the MOD and GCHQ. We will continue to help NATO and other allies to protect their networks using our intelligence and technical insights, and we will use our advanced capabilities to enable the success of coalition operations. Cyber crime 4.113 Since 2010, we have invested in new law enforcement capabilities, including establishing the National Cyber Crime Unit within the NCA. We have improved the skills of law enforcement officers and our understanding of cyber crime. We will reinforce law enforcement’s specialist capabilities, making it more difficult for cyber criminals to operate from within the UK. We will work with industry to strengthen our ability to disrupt cyber crime, sharing more information on the threat. 4.114 Most of the cyber criminals threatening the UK are based overseas, often exploiting the anonymity of the internet or the absence of effective cyber law enforcement in their host countries. We will disrupt the activities of cyber criminals overseas through prosecution and other means. We will create a new intelligence unit dedicated to tackling the criminal use of the ‘dark web’. International response 4.115 The UK has led the international debate about what responsible behaviour looks like and how international law applies. Through the London Cyber Process, we have challenged partners to do more to build an open, secure and resilient cyber space, and to work together to tackle criminality. 4.116 We will continue to build an international consensus around the acceptable use of cyber space, increasing the political risk for states which attack the UK or our allies.