The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published interim practical advice on managing the cyber risks arising from agentic artificial intelligence (AI) systems. The guidance is intended for system designers and operators deploying AI systems with increasing levels of autonomy. The NCSC advises organisations to assess the degree of autonomy required, understand the limitations of model safeguards and apply additional controls where appropriate. It also emphasises the importance of sandboxing, human oversight, logging, monitoring, clear attribution of activity and the ability to stop autonomous systems promptly where necessary. The NCSC states that it has been researching and experimenting in this area for a while. It is also working with partners to develop formal guidance that will expand on and ultimately replace the blog.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), alongside the Cyber League and 15 international partners, has published a joint advisory warning that China-nexus cyber actors are increasingly using covert networks of compromised devices to obscure malicious cyber activity. The guidance highlights that these networks, which are often composed of vulnerable small office or home office (SOHO) routers and internet of things (IoT) devices, are being leveraged at scale to disguise the origin of cyber-attacks and to maintain persistent access to target systems.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published new guidance specifically written for small and medium sized enterprises (SMEs) on using online services, ie cloud services, more securely and to reduce the likelihood of cyber attacks when setting up or using such services.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published new guidance on how businesses can use containerised applications securely, particularly in the cloud. The guidance sets out how to ensure that container images are built and run securely and include trusted software only, the steps to run containers securely and how to protect the data exposed to the containers. In addition, the guidance highlights how to use containerisation securely on a cloud platform and what to expect from cloud providers.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published a paper on adversarial machine learning (AML) attacks that outlines attack classes exploiting ML-specific vulnerabilities, model behaviours and information leakage across the model lifecycle, including development, training and deployment, and highlights risks associated with large model sizes, open-source components and an expanded attack surface. The paper groups AML techniques into categories such as model characterisation, model inversion, training data poisoning, malicious model training, model input manipulation, model artefact manipulation and model hardware attacks, and explains how these techniques may enable malicious actors to achieve objectives including reconnaissance, performance degradation, resource exhaustion, output attribution, embedding hidden behaviours, evading detection, data extraction and unauthorised access. It distinguishes AML attacks from traditional cybersecurity threats while noting that ML systems remain susceptible to both and emphasises the need for robust security aims to protect confidentiality, integrity and performance. The paper aims to raise awareness, support threat modelling, establish a common language for ML security and highlight research gaps to improve collaboration and the development of defences against evolving AML attacks.

The National Cyber Security Centre has published a report on its assessment on how Artificial intelligence (AI) will impact the efficacy of cyber operations and the implications for the cyber threat over the next two years. Amongst others, the report concludes that AI will increase the volume and heighten the impact of cyber attacks, including ransomware, in the near term and that cyber threat actors are already using AI to varying degrees. The report also concludes that more sophisticated uses of AI in cyber operations are highly likely to be restricted to threat actors with access to quality training data, significant expertise (in both AI and cyber), and resources. Threat actors will be able to analyse exfiltrated data faster and more effectively, and use it to train AI models. The report suggests that by lowering the barrier of entry to novice cyber criminals, hackers-for-hire and hacktivists, AI enables relatively unskilled threat actors to carry out more effective access and information-gathering operations. This enhanced access, combined with the improved targeting of victims afforded by AI, will contribute to the global ransomware threat in the next two years.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published guidance for those with an interest in vulnerability management. The NCSC points out that all systems contain vulnerabilities that may take the form of a configuration issue for system administrators to resolve, software defects requiring a vendor update, or even a vulnerability which the vendor is unaware exists and for which mitigation is unavailable. This makes vulnerability management a critical control for organisations. The NCSC further argues that vulnerability management should be seen as a process to validate (and where necessary remediate) how well an organisation’s software update process and security configuration controls are working. The guidance also sets out five principles to help organisations create an efficient vulnerability management process.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published its eighth Annual Review, covering the period from 1 September 2023 to 31 August 2024. The review showcases the organisation's efforts to enhance the UK's online safety and provide clarity in an increasingly complex digital landscape.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released guidance on artificial intelligence (AI) and cybersecurity. The guidance highlights how AI works, why there is a growing interest in AI and the benefits and risks of using AI tools. The guidance also considers the cybersecurity risks of using AI and how leaders can develop AI safely and securely, among other things.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has published new principles for implementing privileged access workstations (PAWs). The principles provide organisations with guidance on establishing restricted workstations for accessing high-risk systems. The guidance emphasises that PAWs should be implemented as part of broader security controls, with focus on establishing trust through auditable systems and validated controls. The principles aim to help organisations protect against privilege escalation and reduce vulnerability to cyber attacks through administrative interfaces.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has released a new video titled, 'The Board's Crucial Role: Understanding Threats and Providing Assurance on Cyber Risk.' Boards play an important role in managing cyber risk and ensuring cyber security governance. Boards also have the opportunity to utilise the benefits of technology and push their company's agenda. The NCSC’s Director of Operations, Paul Chichester and Deputy Director of NCSC Assessment, Tasha Grayson, discuss the general cyber threats that organisations face in the video. They note the significance of board-level involvement in making informed cyber security decisions, which enable boards to protect their organisation and to take advantage of the opportunities that technology brings.

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