Spies share top-secret information with UK firms to protect them from cyber attacks
Head of GCHQ Jeremy Fleming reveals how private companies can get information about hacking attempts immediately
SPIES are sharing top-secret intelligence with British businesses to defend them instantly from cyber attack.
The head of GCHQ reveals for the first time today that private firms can be given information “in a matter of seconds” about criminals or foreign agents trying to hack into UK computers.
And he claims that help from experts based in the intelligence agency’s famous ‘Doughnut’ HQ in Cheltenham has helped Britain drop down the list of countries hit by online scams.
Jeremy Fleming, Director of GCHQ, will reveal the new approach in a speech today at a cyber security conference in Glasgow.
He will tell how the National Cyber Security Centre – GCHQ’s online defence arm – is using its insights “in partnership with business to detect, disrupt and fix malicious online behaviour”.
Mr Fleming will tell the NCSC has made it “simple” for its analysts “to share time-critical, secret information in a matter of seconds”.
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And he will pledge: “In the coming year, we will continue to scale this capability so – whether it’s indicators of a nation state cyber actor, details of malware used by cyber criminals or credit cards being sold on the Dark Web – we will declassify this information and get it back to those who can act on it.”
The intelligence chief will boast that Britain now accounts for below 2 per cent of global “phishing” attempts – where fraudsters use fake emails and texts to steal identities and bank details – down from over 5 per cent three years ago.
And HMRC is now the 146th most targeted brand, down from 16th back in 2016, thanks to better cyber defences.
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