A new Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been signed by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and National Crime Agency (NCA) that sets out how both organisations will cooperate to improve the UK’s cyber-resilience.

The ICO is the independent regulator for upholding information rights in the public interest, promoting openness by public bodies and data privacy for individuals. Meanwhile, the NCA leads the UK’s fight to cut serious and organised crime.

Following the MoU, the two organisations are working more closely together to ensure firms are signposted to relevant bodies, such as the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), and are empowered to report cyber-crime at the earliest opportunity.

The new MoU also reaffirms the following commitments:

1. The ICO will encourage organisations to engage appropriately with the NCA on cybersecurity matters, including the response to cyber-crime.
2. The NCA will never pass information shared with it in confidence by an organisation to the ICO without having first sought the consent of that organisation. 
3. The ICO will support the NCA’s visibility of UK cyber-attacks by sharing information about cyber-incidents with the NCA on an anonymised, systemic, and aggregated basis, and on an organisation-specific basis where appropriate, to assist the NCA in protecting the public from serious and organised crime.
4. Where ICO and NCA are both engaged on a cyber-incident, they will endeavour to deconflict to minimise disruption to an organisation’s efforts to contain and mitigate harm.
5. The ICO and NCA will work together to promote learning, provide consistent guidance and improve standards on cyber-related matters.

Speaking on the agreement and why it’s happened, Stephen Bonner, ICO deputy commissioner – regulatory supervision, said: “Unfortunately we’ve seen cyber-crime costing UK firms billions over the past years. That’s why it’s crucial that relevant bodies work together to boost the UK’s cyber resilience.

“This new memorandum of understanding builds on our existing relationship with the NCA and will help improve cyber security standards across the board, while respecting each other’s remits.”

NCA deputy director Paul Foster, head of the National Cyber Crime Unit, also commented: “The NCA leads a whole-system response to cyber crime, disrupting cyber criminals and putting them before the courts wherever possible.

“Organisations who are vulnerable to imminent attack or find themselves a victim also need support and guidance, and we work closely with our partners to provide this.

“We are pleased to be making this commitment with the Information Commissioner’s Office; this agreement signifies our common goal of establishing and maintaining a secure and resilient cyber ecosystem for all.”

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The announcement concerning the new MoU comes just weeks after Gartner, the technological research and consulting firm, forecasted that global information security spending would grow 15% next year.

Shailendra Upadhyay, senior research principal at Gartner, noted that “The continued heightened threat environment, cloud movement and talent crunch are pushing security to the top of the priorities list and pressing chief information security officers (CISOs) to increase their organization’s security spend.”

Not only is the cybersecurity sector’s global skills shortage driving investment in areas like the security services market, but through 2025, GenAI is set to trigger a spike in the cybersecurity resources required, resulting in more security software spend.