The Government will ensure that our horizon scanning programmes include a rigorous
assessment of cyber risk, and that this is integrated into cyber security and other technology
policy development areas, along with all-source assessment and other available evidence. We
will join up horizon scanning between national security and other policy areas to ensure a
holistic assessment of emerging challenges and opportunities.
We will:
identify gaps in current work, and coordinate work across disciplinary boundaries to
develop a holistic approach to horizon scanning for cyber security;
promote better integration of technical aspects of cyber security with behavioral science;
support rigorous monitoring of the cybercriminal market place to spot new tools and
services that might enable technology transfer to hostile states, terrorists or criminals;
analyses emergent internet-connected process control technologies;
anticipate vulnerabilities around digital currencies; and
Monitor market trends in telecommunications technologies to develop early defenses
against anticipated future attacks.
We recognize that horizon scanning goes beyond the technical, to include political, economic,
legislative, social and environmental dimensions. Cyber security is just one aspect of the issues
that effective horizon scanning can help to address. Therefore, we will ensure that where we
conduct horizon scanning of these other policy areas, we will take into account any cyber
security implications.
We will also ensure that cyber policy-making follows an evidence-based approach, taking into
account assessments from all available sources. This will include, for example:
specific technical evidence, for example on the Internet of Things, or the future role of
advanced materials; and
International strategic and societal trends and their impact on cyber.
The Government will measure our success in establishing an effective horizon scanning
capability by assessing progress towards the following outcomes:
cross-government horizon scanning and all-source assessment are integrated into cyber
policy making; and
The impact of cyber security is factored into all cross-government horizons scanning.