NCSC Annual Review 2023

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), a part of GCHQ, is the UK’s technical authority for cyber security. Since 2016, it has worked to make the UK the safest place to live and work online, and bring clarity and insight to an increasingly complex online world. This review of its seventh year reflects highlights and milestones between 1 September 2022 and 31 August 2023. It also looks ahead to future challenges.

As part of a national security agency, not all its work can be disclosed publicly but the review seeks to describe the year with insights and facts from colleagues inside and out of the organisation.

The front cover of this year’s Annual Review, along with the illustrations included within, were created using an image generator, powered by artificial intelligence (AI). Working closely with a design agency, we wanted to explore the opportunities that AI presents as well as its limitations.

This effort has been an iterative one, as initial prompts used included ‘cyber security’, ‘future’ and ‘technology’. These prompts alone generated the stylised green coding, dark quasi-dystopian images and men in hoodies hunched over laptops which we have become accustomed to, reinforcing a stereotypical representation of cyber security.

When asked to show people within these images, biases were common, too.

When we amended the prompts to incorporate ‘inclusion’, ‘open and resilient society’ and ‘diversity’, the images began to change – and with our design agency, we created a front cover which better aligns to the kind of future the NCSC aims to shape for the whole of society.

These tools will have their uses but what this exploration reinforces is that an inclusive, diverse, and open future of cyber security requires our collective intent – it will not happen organically, without effort.

Generative AI tools pose ethical, legal, and existential questions which society is grappling with, and will continue to grapple with, for years to come. While AI as an emerging technology presents a huge opportunity for global governments and wider society, 'in the context of increasing interest and intrigue from the UK public' it’s vital that those using these technologies understand the cyber security risks, as our CEO Lindy Cameron warned earlier this year.

It is incumbent on us all to use AI responsibly and for us at the NCSC, working with industry and governments around the world to ensure that cyber security is thoroughly considered during the development and adoption of new AI technologies.