The UK’s Cyber Monitoring Centre has today launched its cyber event classification scale.

In a world-first, the CMC’s framework will assess the severity of major cyber events as they occur, categorising incidents on an easy-to-understand scale from one (least severe) to five (most severe).

The CMS is an independent, non-profit organisation established in 2023 to help enhance the UK’s cyber security by objectively monitoring, defining, and classifying cyber events. Launched by global insurer CFC and law firm Weightmans, the CMC's technical committee is chaired by former head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre, Ciaran Martin.

The CMC will categorise cyber events that have a potential financial impact greater than £100m, affect multiple organisations and where there is data or information available to enable assessment.

Once the technical committee has categorised an event, the CMC will publish the event category from one to five through various channels. Each categorisation will be supported by an event report, which will provide an explanation of the analysis, including additional insights from the analysis work. It is understood that all of this information will be made available free of charge.

“Measuring the severity of incidents has proved very challenging,” Martin said. “This could be a huge leap forward. I have no doubt the CMC will improve the way we tackle, learn from and recover from cyber incidents. If we crack this and I’m confident that we will, ultimately it could be a huge boost to cyber security efforts not just here but internationally too.”

CEO of the CMC, Will Mayes, added: “The risk of major cyber events is greater now than at any time in the past as UK organisations have become increasingly reliant on technology. The CMC has the potential to help businesses and individuals better understand the implications of cyber events, mitigate their impact on people’s lives and improve cyber resilience and response plans.”

“I would also like to acknowledge the support from a wide range of world-leading experts who have contributed so much time and expertise to help establish the CMC and continue to provide data and insights during events. Their ongoing support will be vital and we look forward to adding further expertise to our growing cohort of partners in the months and years ahead.”

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