Felicity Oswald Warns About Cyber Threats from China and North Korea

Felicity Oswald, the head of the British government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), has raised concerns about cybersecurity threats from China and North Korea. In an interview, she emphasized that these countries are among the most worrisome in terms of cyber threats.

Oswald, who is the NCSC’s COO and interim CEO, mentioned that the evolving Chinese threat should be a cause for worry for everyone. She highlighted the proliferation of cyber challenges, which allow any country to purchase cyber tools or malware to target other nations or businesses.

She specifically pointed out the Chinese approach to software vulnerabilities, where any discovered vulnerability must be reported to the government first. This practice goes against the long-held procedures in the cybersecurity community, where vulnerabilities are shared for the common good.

Oswald also noted that cyber threats come from criminal actors worldwide, including Russia, and from nation states. The NCSC mainly focuses on threats from four big nation states: China, Russia, Iran, and North Korea.