UK must pay cyber pros more than its Prime Minister, top civil servant says

UK civil service leaders acknowledge that attracting top cybersecurity talent may require salaries exceeding the Prime Minister’s, citing NAO findings of slow progress on resilience goals, heavy reliance on costly contractors, and significant legacy IT exposure (319 systems, ~28% of the estate). PAC discussions highlighted inconsistent maturity and poor information sharing across departments and arm’s-length bodies, limitations of the GovAssure self-assessment process, and the economic case for investing in skilled permanent cyber leaders to reduce risks and costs evidenced by incidents like the British Library ransomware recovery.