ONS to Add 'Cyber Events' Questions to Business Survey

The UK's statistics agency the ONS has announced it is working with the recently created Cyber Monitoring Centre to develop questions about cyber events and their impact on business. Questions will be added to the ONS's fortnightly Business Insights and Conditions Survey (BICS).

The Cyber Monitoring Centre is an independent, non-profit body set up last autumn by the insurance industry, to categorise, analyse and report on 'cyber events' impacting UK organisations, with the aim of improving preparation for and response to threats. The Centre announced today that it is working on 'a consistent and objective framework to assess the severity of major cyber events as they occur... on an easy-to-understand scale from one (least severe) to five (most severe)'. The assessment will be made by the new body's Technical Committee, which is chaired by Ciaran Martin (pictured), former CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre. Events will be categorised provided they have a potential financial impact greater than £100m, affect multiple organisations and (obviously) where there is data or information available to make an assessment possible.

The Centre, which already partners with risk software firm Parametrix Analytics, is now working with the ONS to develop questions about cyber events that can be deployed quickly in BICS, so as to assess rapidly their impact on businesses. Any cyber event that reaches a defined threshold will be covered in the survey, and the partners aim to publish answers within a week of the survey closing, giving vital information about any impacts.

Web sites are at www.cybermonitoringcentre.com and www.ons.gov.uk .

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas, 2024- by Nick Thomas, unless otherwise stated.