China, North Korea among world’s most worrisome countries in terms of cybersecurity threats: UK official

Head of the British government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Felicity Oswald stressed that China and North Korea are among the world’s most worrisome countries in terms of cybersecurity threats, adding that the evolving Chinese threat should be a cause for worry for everybody, reported Nikkei Asia.

China and North Korea are among the world’s most worrisome countries in terms of cybersecurity threats, but that is not the full extent of the risks, head of the British government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) said in an interview to the Tokyo-headquartered publication.

Oswald, the NCSC’s COO and interim CEO said that they are concerned about the proliferation of cyber challenges.

“Increasingly, we’re worried about the proliferation of cyber challenges, which allow any country in the world to purchase cyber, malware or other challenges to hit us or businesses in our countries,” Oswald told Nikkei.

Responding to what according to her is an assessment of China’s cyber capabilities and potential risks, she said that they are extremely focused on the cyber threats.

“But the Chinese actors’ approach in cyberspace over the last 18 months should worry us all,” she said.

She continued that for the UK, there are other worrying indicators of the Chinese approach in cyberspace.

“We’re particularly concerned about Chinese approach to vulnerabilities under the national security legislation. So anyone in China who finds a vulnerability in software has to report that first to the government. For us, that goes against long-held processes and procedures in the cybersecurity community where when you find a vulnerability, they are shared by default for common good,” Oswald said.

She further highlighted that threats emanate from criminal actors all around the world, including in Russia, but also from nation states.

“The threats we face from cyber range from criminal actors all around the world, including in Russia, but also from nation states,” she said.

The National Cyber Security Centre mainly talk about four big nation states: China, Russia, Iran and North Korea, she added.

“Increasingly, we’re worried about the proliferation of cyber challenges, which allow any country in the world to purchase cyber, malware or other challenges to hit us or businesses in our countries,” she said.