National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) chief exec Lindy Cameron is set to take up a diplomatic role.
According to the Computer Weekly website, the NCSC has announced it is to part ways with its popular CEO in early 2024, and has begun the search for her successor.
Earlier this year, Ms Cameron was embroiled in controversy over ‘IRA’ slurs directed at Belfast’s black taxi drivers.
NCSC was the organiser of the CyberUK conference in Belfast in April.
But the event was marred in controversy after a leaked security memo for delegates advised those thinking of travelling in a black taxi to avoid them, as they are “run by the IRA”.
It also stated those with “English accents” would not be welcome in housing estates around the city centre.
And it warned that security may be compromised if delegates were to “eat outside the city centre” and instructed them to state they were “under a non-disclosure agreement” if asked by anyone why they were in the city.
At the time, NCSC said: “This is not an NCSC document. It was sent in error by a contractor and contains significant factual inaccuracies. The document has been withdrawn.”
Ms Cameron subsequently apologised for the comments.
“A contractor issued some security advice in error and we recognised this advice was both factually inaccurate and offensive,” she said.
“As somebody from here I am deeply sorry that CyberUK, which is an amazing conference, a fantastic opportunity for Northern Ireland we couldn’t have imagined 25 years ago, I am deeply sorry that’s been the occasion to cause offence here in Northern Ireland.”
A number of taxi drivers and tour guides later mounted legal proceedings over the remarks.
Ms Cameron was the NCSC’s second leader to hail from Northern Ireland, and only its second leader ever.
Her parents helped set up the Corrymeela Community peace group based in Ballycastle.
She joined the NCSC in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 health crisis, after stints in the Northern Ireland Office, the Department for International Development, the Foreign Office and the Cabinet Office.
An NCSC spokesperson said: “Lindy Cameron, chief executive of the NCSC, will leave the organisation in early 2024 to take up a diplomatic posting overseas.
“During her three-and-a-half-year tenure, the NCSC has responded to a wide range of cyber security challenges including managing the cyber security impacts of Russia’s illegal invasion of Ukraine; the evolution of the threat from ransomware; and the emergence of state-aligned actors as a significant cyber threat to the UK’s critical national infrastructure.
“We are very grateful for her leadership… and wish her all the best in her next role.”
Her replacement, who is yet to be identified, will take charge of setting the NCSC’s strategic direction for the “next stage” of its evolution, and like their predecessors will be instrumental in shaping, delivering and communicating the UK’s national response to cyber security.
Besides working alongside the highest levels of government, and with the UK’s international intelligence partners, the role of NCSC chief executive is also a communications role, with the holder expected to act as a media spokesperson and translate often complex technological jargon into terms the public can understand.
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