Sharon Barber named as co-Chair of the National Cyber Advisory Board
She presently serves as the Chief Resilience & Security Officer at Lloyd Banking Group
The Cabinet Office announced on Thursday that Sharon Barber has been appointed as the co-Chair of the National Cyber Advisory Board (NCAB).
Barber is presently the head of the Lloyd Banking Group's Chief Resilience & Security Office, which is responsible for physical, cyber, and information security, as well as supply chain management, sourcing and divestments.
In her current role at Lloyds, Barber has been instrumental in protecting the financial services sector from cyberattacks such as destructive malware, ransomware, and incidents of supply chain compromise.
She has also been in charge of the Group's operational resilience plan and implementation, working closely with government officials and regulators.
As Chief Security Officer (2017-2020) at Lloyds, Barber was responsible for establishing and implementing the Group's security strategy to secure its 30 million customers from cyber threats.
She has also held senior positions across the Group in IT, Security, Risk and Major Programme Delivery.
"I'm delighted to appoint Sharon Barber as co-chair and look forward to her bringing her expertise and experience from industry to the National Cyber Advisory Board, which is a crucial part of the successful delivery of our National Cyber Strategy," said NCAB chairman, Steve Barclay, Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and lead cyber minister.
"We are investing £2.6billion in cyber over the next three years and that funding will underpin our approach to dealing collaboratively with industry, universities, schools and individual citizens to work with us to tackle the cyber challenges ahead," he added.
Barber said: "The Government has set out an ambitious strategy - it's now up to us to join together, harnessing the rich diversity of the UKs abilities across academia, government and industry to move into execution. We will be more successful as a collective."
The government describes NCAB as a forum for a more inclusive conversation on cybersecurity, and sees it as a crucial commitment made in the National Cyber Strategy 2022, which was released in December.
According to the government, the Board will bring together professionals from industry, academia and the third sector from across the UK, bringing different perspectives from across the cyber ecosystem.
It will also collaborate with the Cyber Growth Partnership, the UK Cyber Security Council, and other relevant boards and organisations to help the government meet its cyber obligations in the public sector.
The Board will convene for the first time later this year.