Cyber security chief linked to ‘IRA’ black taxi smear controversy to step down
National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) chief exec Lindy Cameron is ready to take up a diplomatic function.
According to the Computer Weekly website, the NCSC has introduced it’s to half methods with its common CEO in early 2024, and has begun the seek for her successor.
Earlier this yr, Ms Cameron was embroiled in controversy over ‘IRA’ slurs directed at Belfast’s black taxi drivers.
NCSC was the organiser of the CyberUK convention in Belfast in April.
But the occasion was marred in controversy after a leaked security memo for delegates suggested these pondering of travelling in a black taxi to keep away from them, as they’re “run by the IRA”.
It additionally acknowledged these with “English accents” wouldn’t be welcome in housing estates across the metropolis centre.
And it warned that security could also be compromised if delegates had been to “eat outside the city centre” and instructed them to state they had been “under a non-disclosure agreement” if requested by anybody why they had been within the metropolis.
At the time, NCSC mentioned: “This is not an NCSC document. It was sent in error by a contractor and contains significant factual inaccuracies. The document has been withdrawn.”
Ms Cameron subsequently apologised for the feedback.
“A contractor issued some security advice in error and we recognised this advice was both factually inaccurate and offensive,” she mentioned.
“As somebody from here I am deeply sorry that CyberUK, which is an amazing conference, a fantastic opportunity for Northern Ireland we couldn’t have imagined 25 years ago, I am deeply sorry that’s been the occasion to cause offence here in Northern Ireland.”
Quite a few taxi drivers and tour guides later mounted authorized proceedings over the remarks.
Ms Cameron was the NCSC’s second chief to hail from Northern Ireland, and solely its second chief ever.
Her dad and mom helped arrange the Corrymeela Community peace group based mostly in Ballycastle.
She joined the NCSC in 2020 within the midst of the Covid-19 well being disaster, after stints within the Northern Ireland Office, the Department for International Development, the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office.
An NCSC spokesperson mentioned: “Lindy Cameron, chief govt of the NCSC, will depart the organisation in early 2024 to take up a diplomatic posting abroad.
“During her three-and-a-half-year tenure, the NCSC has responded to a variety of cyber security challenges together with managing the cyber security impacts of Russia’s unlawful invasion of Ukraine; the evolution of the menace from ransomware; and the emergence of state-aligned actors as a big cyber menace to the UK’s vital nationwide infrastructure.
“We are very grateful for her management… and need her all the most effective in her subsequent function.”
Her alternative, who’s but to be recognized, will take cost of setting the NCSC’s strategic route for the “next stage” of its evolution, and like their predecessors shall be instrumental in shaping, delivering and speaking the UK’s nationwide response to cyber security.
Besides working alongside the very best ranges of presidency, and with the UK’s worldwide intelligence companions, the function of NCSC chief govt can also be a communications function, with the holder anticipated to act as a media spokesperson and translate typically advanced technological jargon into phrases the general public can perceive.
