In its introduction to the Inquiry, the Committee states that the UK is the third most targeted country in the world for cyber attacks, after the US and Ukraine, and the number of attacks is rising. Attacks on the UK’s critical national infrastructure (“CNI”) are of particular concern as it is critical for the UK’s defence capability, as well as key to developing critical and emerging technology. The inquiry will explore the progress of the UK CNI toward meeting recently-announced resilience commitments by 2025 and what support the sector needs to achieve them. The Committee welcomes submissions addressing a number of specific issues including the types and sources of cyber threats to CNI used for communication, energy, government and finance, the strengths and weaknesses of the UK Government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022 and the Government Cyber Security Strategy 2022-2030 in relation to CNI, the effectiveness of relevant government agencies such as the National Cyber Security Centre and the government’s relationship with the private sector and regulators in protecting CNI, what interventions are needed to meet the 2025 targets, and the role that “secure by design” and emerging technologies will play in the cyber resilience of CNI and its supply chains.

For more information and to access the Call for Evidence, which closes on 10 November 2023, click here.