When Ciaran was appointed to GCHQ\u2019s board in 2013, the UK was ranked joint eighth in the world for cyber security by the International Telecommunications Union. When he stepped down in mid-2020, the country was ranked first. Opened in 2016 and launched officially by Her Majesty The Queen, the UK NCSC has attracted worldwide acclaim as the leading authority in cyber security across the globe. In 2020 alone, the UK\u2019s NCSC launched the first national suspicious email reporting system for citizens, released technical details of attempts by hostile states to access vaccine research and outlined plans for comprehensive reforms of telecommunications and commodity Internet security. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"