‘Attacks will get through’: head of GCHQ urges companies to do more to fight cybercrime

A man walks past empty shelves in a branch of the Co-op in Manchester after a cyber-attack. Photograph: Danny Lawson/PA

Companies need to do more to mitigate the potential effects of cyber-attacks, the head of GCHQ has said, including making physical, paper copies of crisis plans to use if an attack brings down entire computer systems.

“What are your contingency plans? Because attacks will get through,” said Anne Keast-Butler, who has headed GCHQ, the British government’s cyber and signals intelligence agency, since 2023.