GCHQ’s CESG Approves PwC To Join The UK’s Cyber Incident Response Services

Roland Moore-Colyer,

More collaboration is happening between the public and private sector to combat cyber security threats

The information security arm of GCHQ, CESG, has approved professional services company PwC to provide cyber incident response services to organisations that have come under serious cyber attack.

Run by CESG and the Centre for the Protection of National Infrastructure, the Cyber Incident Response (CIR) scheme has been designed to assist the UK’s most critical networks and organisations that have been victims of advanced and targeted attacks.

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PwC claims to be the first major professional services organisations to get accredited for the CIR scheme, which the company said it achieved through demonstrating how its cyber security team can handle a wide range cyber attacks.

The company also noted it has proven experience in assisting with the fallout of major cyber attacks that have been aimed at government, public sector organisations and critical national infrastructure environments.

Being approved by the CESG means PwC will need to provide end-to-end assistance with cyber security breaches, which will involve technical resolutions of hack attacks and business management, as well as legal and regulatory support, which will require PwC to tap into the expertise of its legal division.

“PwC has met the requirements to become a certified CIR provider and we are very pleased to welcome them to the scheme. CIR deals with sophisticated, targeted cyber attacks against networks of national significance, of which PwC has proven experience,” said a CESG spokesperson.

Kris McConkey, cyber security partner at PwC, noted that the threats cyber attacks pose organisations and infrastructure requires such partnerships between the private and public sector.

“Collaboration between industry and government is essential when responding to targeted cyber attacks with the potential to impact our national economy and security,” he said.

With the rise of malware such as ransomware putting organisations like hospitals at risk, it is no surprise the government is focusing heavily on cyber security defences, with a particular aim to take a more active approach to cyber security.

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