UK must plan for major 'hostile cyber attack'

The NCSC will open in October and be part of GCHQ, the signals intelligence agency.

In his first public speech as CEO, Ciaran Martin told an audience in Washington that “development of lawful and carefully governed offensive cyber capabilities” was necessary “to combat and deter the most aggressive threats”.

According to Mr Martin, there were, on average, 200 national cyber incidents each month in 2015.

The USA, France and Ukraine have suffered first-order cyber attacks: the hack of Sony by North Korea; France’s TV5 Monde taken off air, apparently by a Russian hacking group; and an attack on Ukraine’s power grid that took several stations offline, leaving thousands without electricity.

The hacking is going on “despite the officially promoted friendship between Russia and China and accords on cyber security, cooperation and non-aggression” between the two governments, Gostev said in an interview. “I don’t see them working.”