Hacking attacks on the government and businesses are increasing in their frequency, severity and sophistication, Philip Hammond, the chancellor, has said.

In advance of the formal opening of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) by the Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh, Hammond said companies needed to sharpen their approach as the threat of hacking attacks “increases and intensifies”.

He said the new centre has responded to 188 attacks in the first three months of its existence, as the government announced a plan to train 100 people seconded from business at the centre led by GCHQ, one of the intelligence agencies.

“We will invite business to second up to 100 employees to come and work in the NCSC – allowing us to draw on the best and the brightest in industry – to test and challenge the government’s thinking,” he said.

“And for these people to then return to the private sector and draw on their experience at NCSC to drive change within industry. Because the government cannot protect businesses and the general public from the risks of cyber-attack.”

The announcement was made as a survey of more than 19,000 cybersecurity professionals, by the Center for Cyber Safety and Education, revealed the world will face a shortfall of 1.8 million experts in the field by 2022 to keep up with the pace of attacks. It also said this was an increase of 20% on the five-year projection made in 2015 by the same survey.

Over the weekend, Ciaran Martin, head of the NCSC, said there had been an increase in Russia’s online aggression against the west. “In the case of government departments, [it is] getting into the system to extract information on UK government policy on anything from energy to diplomacy to information on a particular sector.”

Martin added: “Over the last two years there has been a step-change in Russian aggression in cyberspace. Part of that step-change has been a series of attacks on political institutions, political parties, parliamentary organisations and that’s all very well evidenced by our international partners and widely accepted.”



There are several investigations under way in the US into the hacking of Democratic party emails during the election campaign, allegedly in an attempt by Russia to influence the result of the election.

Before the NCSC launch Alison Whitney, deputy director for digital services at the agency, said it was more important than ever to tackle cyber-attacks because so many people now accessed services online. “We do so much business online. Every citizen in the United Kingdom, pretty much, is accessing some service online, be it just things like internet shopping or more and more the kinds of service that we get from government,” she said.

“Making sure that we can do that securely is more and more important to everybody in the UK. That’s really what the NCSC is here to do. We say and we really do mean that we are here to make the UK the safest place to do business and to live online.”