UK Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC): A Groundbreaking Initiative

Weightmans, a leading national law firm, has joined forces with global insurer CFC to introduce the UK Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC). This innovative venture is set to establish an unparalleled methodology to classify and announce systemic cyber attacks akin to natural disasters.

The CMC will emerge as an autonomous entity commencing operations in January 2024. It will be governed by a non-insurance committee comprising experts from academia, cyber security, public policy, defense, and law. This committee will employ a novel methodology to rank cyber incidents on a severity scale, enabling the categorization of events from ‘category one’ to ‘category five’ based on their impact on businesses and the economy.

Dedicated to issuing incident categorizations within 30 days, the CMC will refine its methodology during its inaugural year before publicly declaring incidents. While not serving the insurance market directly, the classifications are poised to aid insurers in refining their coverage for systemic cyber incidents, historically challenging to insure due to their widespread impact.

Edward Lewis, Partner at Weightmans, emphasized the significance of the CMC in identifying and measuring the impact of complex systemic attacks: "The CMC provides the independent measure that is necessary to better understand when a systemic attack has occurred and how much damage it has caused."

James Burns, Head of Cyber Strategy at CFC, highlighted the centre's independence and role as a reliable assessor of systemic incidents, stating, "This launch is very much the start of the centre’s journey. It needs time to prove the strength of its approach in the real-world environment."

Weightmans' involvement in the CMC launch is part of its ongoing commitment to supporting organizations in preventing and managing cyber incidents. The firm recently introduced CyXcel, a pioneering cyber security business uniting top-notch expertise in cyber, forensics, intelligence, and legal services.

CyXcel brings together expertise from esteemed firms like PwC, KPMG, Accenture, Marsh, and AON, along with government agencies like the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD). Its comprehensive approach and support from a regulated law firm position CyXcel as a unique entity in the UK, offering a blend of technical, legal, and crisis management expertise.

The launch of the UK Cyber Monitoring Centre signifies a groundbreaking step towards addressing systemic cyber risks, potentially reshaping the landscape of cyber insurance and bolstering the nation's defense against cyber threats.