Question to the Cabinet Office:

To ask Her Majesty's Government how any response to a cyber attack against the UK is decided.

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), National Crime Agency (NCA) and regulators together agree the immediate response to a cyber incident, seeking to reduce harm and aid recovery within victim organisations. In April 2018, the NCSC in partnership with UK law enforcement introduced a new cyber attack categorisation framework to drive consistency and support improvements in the UK’s response. The framework encompasses cyber incidents in all sectors of the economy and gives consistency and clarity to response mechanisms for incidents. In those cyber incidents affecting UK infrastructure or critical services, the COBR crisis response mechanism is activated to coordinate incident management actions and priorities.