29 Section 4 OUR NATIONAL RESPONSE THE NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY CENTRE The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) launched on 1 October 2016. The NCSC provides a unique opportunity to build effective cyber security partnerships between government, industry and the public to ensure that the UK is safer online. It will provide cyber incident response and be the UK’s authoritative voice on cyber security. For the first time, key sectors will be able to engage directly with NCSC staff to get the best possible advice and support on securing networks and systems from cyber threats. The NCSC provides: • a unified source of advice for the Government’s cyber security threat intelligence and information assurance; • the strong public face of the Government’s action against cyber threats – working hand in hand with industry, academia and international partners to keep the UK protected against cyber attack; and • a public-facing organisation with reach back into GCHQ to draw on necessarily secret intelligence and world-class technical expertise. There will be a phased approach to building the NCSC’s capabilities over the lifetime of this strategy. It brings together the capabilities already developed by CESG – the information security arm of GCHQ – the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure (CPNI), CERT-UK (Computer Emergency Response Team) and the Centre for Cyber Assessment (CCA), enabling us to build on the best of what we already have, whilst greatly simplifying the former arrangements. Its initial focus will be: • a world class incident management capability to respond to and reduce the harm from cyber incidents – from those affecting single organisations through to national, large scale attacks; • providing communications on how organisations in the public and private sector can deal with cyber security issues, facilitating the sharing of cyber threat information; and • continuing to provide expert sectoral advice to Government and critical sectors like telecommunications, energy and finance, and providing cyber security advice across the UK. The NCSC offers an effective means for the Government to deliver many elements of this strategy. We recognise that, as the NCSC grows, its focus and capabilities will need to adapt to new challenges and lessons learned. National Cyber Security Strategy 2016