Source · Select Committees · National Security Strategy (Joint Committee)
Recommendation 6
6
Deferred
The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and National Cyber Security Centre should require all UK...
Recommendation
The National Protective Security Authority (NPSA) and National Cyber Security Centre should require all UK landing stations to be target-hardened to sufficient levels to deter state-backed sabotage. They should require landing station operators to develop within 12 months an emergency ‘good enough’ repair plan to recover from co-ordinated attacks. The NPSA should also conduct a similar exercise with European counterparts for relevant landing stations on the continent. (Recommendation, Paragraph 48)
Government response summary AI-generated
The government requires more time to consider the recommendation, stating the MoD will work with other departments and industry to evaluate commercial cable repair capacity and determine if intervention is needed.
Summary of the government's response below — read the verbatim text to verify.
Government Response
Deferred
HM Government · verbatim extract
Deferred
We agree with the Committee on the need to strengthen the security of UK cable landing stations, including target hardening to deter state- backed sabotage. The NPSA and NCSC have already carried out security assessments of certain landing stations and provided tailored advice to the owners and operators. However, we recognise that more is required to improve their security across the board. The Department for Science Innovation and Technology (DSIT) will write to all UK landing station operators to emphasise the importance of robust security standards and request the development of emergency ‘good enough’ repair plans over the next 12 months. In doing so, we will define what constitutes a ‘good enough’ repair plan, providing guidance to industry on our expectations. We are currently reviewing UK legislation relating to subsea cable infrastructure and will determine whether further obligations need to be placed on landing station operators to ensure they produce such repair plans. DSIT will work with the NPSA and European counterparts to explore the possibility of conducting a similar exercise at key landing stations on the continent to ensure both ends of the cable are secured to equivalent high standards.
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