UK Blazes New Path on Information Sharing

By Sir David Omand GCB

Sir David Omand GCB is a Visiting Professor in the Department of War Studies, King’s College London and at PSIA Sciences Po in Paris where he teaches a course he has designed on digital intelligence. His posts in government service included UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator in the Cabinet Office after 9/11, Permanent Secretary of the Home Office, Director of GCHQ, Deputy Under-Secretary of State for Policy in the MOD and Principal Private Secretary to the Secretary of State for Defence. He is the Senior Independent Director of Babcock International Group plc and a senior adviser to Paladin Capital Group, investing in the cybersecurity sector. He is an honorary Fellow of Corpus Christi College Cambridge and holds an honorary doctorate from Birmingham University.

The United Kingdom has revamped the way its intelligence agencies collaborate with private industry by establishing a new National Cyber Security Centre that leans towards more open and meaningful exchanges to help secure the country against malicious cyber attacks. The Cipher Brief’s Levi Maxey spoke with Sir David Omand, the former director of the Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) and the first UK Security and Intelligence Coordinator, about how this novel model of private-public collaboration is seeking to bridge the gaps between government and private industry when it comes to sharing information on cybersecurity threats.

The Cipher Brief: How has the UK traditionally collaborated with the private sector in areas such as threat intelligence sharing?

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