National Cyber Force
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
- Air Vice-Marshal Tim Neal-Hopes, Commander
| Agency overview | |
|---|---|
| Headquarters | Samlesbury Aerodrome |
| Agency executive |
|
| Parent agency | Part of Ministry of Defence, DSTL, Secret Intelligence Service, and GCHQ |
| Website | www.gov.uk/government/organisations/national-cyber-force |
The National Cyber Force (NCF) is intended to consolidate offensive cyber activity in the United Kingdom, by enabling an offensive capability to combat security threats, hostile states, terror groups, extremism, hackers, disinformation and election interference.[1][2]
The specialist unit is a joint initiative between the Ministry of Defence (MOD) and GCHQ, one of the British intelligence agencies.[3][4]
Around £76m will be invested in the NCF in its first year.[2]
It will operate alongside the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which primarily concentrates on defensive cyber activities to protect government departments, strategic infrastructure and industry.[2]
Its first commander was named in The Economist as James Babbage,[5] who took the role after a long career at GCHQ.[6] In 2023 Babbage was succeeded by Air Vice-Marshal Tim Neal-Hopes,[7] formerly director Cyber, Intelligence and Information Integration at the United Kingdom's Strategic Command.