The UK’s new Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC) has officially launched and will now begin to categorise cyber events impacting UK organisations.

The CMC, an independent, non-profit organisation, says it will deliver a consistent and objective framework to the severity of major cyber events as they occur, categorising incidents on an easy-to-understand scale from one (least severe) to five (most severe).

The CMC’s Technical Committee, made up pf leading cyber experts and chairs by the former CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre Ciaran Martin, uses a wide range of data and analysis to assess and categorise incidents against the framework.

“Measuring the severity of incidents has proved very challenging,” Martin commented.

“This could be a huge leap forward. I have no doubt the CMC will improve the way we tackle, learn from, and recover from cyber incidents. If we crack this, and I’m confident that we will, ultimately it could be a huge boost to cyber security efforts not just here but internationally too.”

The CMC will categorise cyber events that have a potential financial impact greater than £100M, affect multiple organisations and where there is data or information available to enable assessment.

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Once the Technical Committee has categorised an event, the CMC will publish the event category from one to five through multiple channels. Each categorisation will be supported by an event report, which will provide an explanation of the analysis, including additional insights from the analysis work. All this information will be made available free of charge.

CEO of the CMC, Will Mayes, adds: “The risk of major cyber events is greater now than at any time in the past as UK organisations have become increasingly reliant on technology. The CMC has the potential to help businesses and individuals better understand the implications of cyber events, mitigate their impact on people’s lives, and improve cyber resilience and response plans.”

“I would also like to acknowledge the support from a wide range of world-leading experts who have contributed so much time and expertise to help establish the CMC, and continue to provide data and insights during events. Their ongoing support will be vital and we look forward to add further expertise to our growing cohort of partners in the months and years ahead.”