National Cyber Resilience Demands Unified Defense

Cybercrime , Events , Fraud Management & Cybercrime National Cyber Resilience Demands Unified Defense UK NCSC's Richard Horne on Strengthening Cyber Defense and Incident Response Rahul Neel Mani (@rneelmani) • March 31, 2026     Share Post Share Credit Eligible Get Permission Richard Horne, CEO, U.K. National Cyber Security Centre Cyber risk is accelerating as digital reliance expands and threat actors change their tactics. Cyber leaders need to treat cybersecurity as a mission-critical part of the business, strengthen their resilience, and align defense efforts to counter ransomware, AI-driven threats, and supply chain attacks, said Richard Horne, CEO at the U.K. National Cyber Security Centre. See Also: How Cyber Deterioration Raises Enterprise Risk Horne outlined three U.K. priorities: improve national resilience, lead defense against advanced threats and establish technical standards. CEOs must own cyber risk, build defenses and ensure response at scale. Organizations need to be ready to sustain operations during disruptive attacks and rebuild systems quickly. "We all need to act. We all have a role to play. We all have our position on court. We need to act in concert, and we need to execute that full court press," Horne said. In this video interview with Information Security Media Group at RSAC Conference 2026, Horne also discussed: Rising cyber risk driven by digital exposure, expanding code and diverse threat actors; Leadership responsibility to embed resilience, response and recovery across operations; Artificial intelligence as a dual-use tool that defenders must embrace, secure and shape. Horne, who was named CEO of the NCSC in October 2024, previously was a cybersecurity partner and chair of the cybersecurity practice at PwC UK, where he helped global boards and executives shape their cyber risk strategies and led the response to critical cyber incidents. He oversaw the post-incident review for the Irish Health Service after the ransomware attack that disrupted healthcare services across Ireland in 2021.