Director General Cyber Security at GCHQ speaks at Warwick Policy Lab Lecture

The Warwick policy Lab Lecture Series for this academic year concluded yesterday evening with an extremely interesting and insightful talk from Ciaran Martin, Director General Cyber Security at GCHQ.

One of only a few members of GCHQ able to speak in public, Ciaran gave a refreshingly honest talk which touched upon cyber terrorism, breaches of cyber security both at home and overseas, how GCHQ is trying to keep pace with advances in technologies and threats, encouraging the private sector to invest and the threats we are all open to on a daily basis and how to protect ourselves. The talk was followed by a Q&A which included some provocative questions on the dark web, hacking groups, skills gaps in the UK's capabilities to defend ourselves and the qualifications needed to be in Ciaran's role.

Prior to joining GCHQ in February 2014, Ciaran was Constitution Director at the Cabinet Office. In this role, he was the lead official negotiator for the Prime Minister and Secretary of State for Scotland in the run-up to the Edinburgh Agreement in 2012 on a referendum on independence for Scotland. Previous Cabinet Office roles included Director of Security and Intelligence, from 2008 to 2011, and Head of the Cabinet Secretary's Office from 2005 to 2008. Before that Ciaran spent 6 years at HM Treasury and 3 at the National Audit Office, after graduating from Hertford College, Oxford in 1996.

Siobhan Benita, Chief Policy and Strategy Officer for Economics and Co-director of the Warwick Policy Lab introduced Ciaran, she said of the event:

We were delighted and privileged to host the lecture from Ciaran yesterday evening, particularly as he works in such a sensitive area of public policy