So far within UK public debate the one area of cyber which has received little attention is offensive cyber operations. This appears to be changing, with the public announcement of the National Cyber Force (NCF) being created in November 2020, and recently detailed further in the Integrated Review. Given the construct of the NCF as a predominantly military unit – but one with significant intelligence contingents – the question remains, exactly what will the NCF do?

To address the question of offensive cyber and the NCF following the Integrated Review, this event presents an opportunity to discuss how the NCF will evolve as the UK further develops itself as a responsible, democratic cyber power. With the release of King’s College London’s recent report, ‘The National Cyber Force That Britain Needs?’, we are pleased to welcome one of the report’s authors, Amy Ertan, to speak on the report’s findings and broader views on UK offensive cyber operations.

The Henry Jackson Society is delighted to invite you to the latest event organised by the Centre on Cyber Security and Online Threats.

Amy Ertan is an information security Doctoral Candidate at Royal Holloway, University of London, and co-chair for the Offensive Cyber Working Group. Amy is a visiting fellow at the NATO Cooperative Cyber Defence Centre of Excellence and with the Belfer Center, Harvard Kennedy School. Amy is a co-author for the report: ‘The National Cyber Force that Britain needs?’ which was published in April 2021.  

Dr Danny Steed is a research fellow within the Henry Jackson Society’s Centre for Cyber, Data, and Online Threats. Previously Danny was Lecturer in Strategy and Defence at the University of Exeter, where he created and delivered numerous courses specialising in national security strategy to student, professional, and military cadres. Danny has also worked in UK government service in an operational cyber security capacity.  Since then, Danny has been in private industry as a Head of Strategy. During that time, he avidly continued his own scholarship, as a visiting fellow to both the University of Cranfield and the Cyber Norms Program at the University of Leiden in 2019, and continuing to contribute to taught courses, publications and academic events. He is the author of two books, British Strategy and Intelligence in the Suez Crisis, and The Politics and Technology of Cyberspace, published by Palgrave in 2016 and Routledge in 2019 respectively.

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