How Secure Video Conferencing Improves Crisis Decision-Making
The head of the UK's National Cyber Security Centre went on BBC Radio 4 today to make a blunt case: every organisation must plan for the moment its systems fail. Here's what that means in practice - and where out-of-band communications fit into the picture.
Richard Horne has led the National Cyber Security Centre since October 2024, arriving with a career that spans PwC's global cyber practice, Barclays, and a secondment to the Cabinet Office to help craft the UK's very first national cyber security plan. When he speaks about organisational resilience, it is with the authority of someone who has personally overseen the aftermath of major attacks - including the 2021 ransomware assault that brought the Irish Health Service to its knees.
This morning, he used the BBC Radio 4 platform to deliver a message that was measured in tone but urgent in substance: the threat landscape has changed, the tools available to attackers have multiplied, and no organisation - public or private, large or small - can afford to treat cyber security as an IT team's problem alone.
A Framework That Has Stood for a Decade
The NCSC's strategic approach to cyber security has remained deliberately consistent since the organisation was founded. It rests on three pillars - Understand, Defend, and Respond - and Horne described each with notable directness during the interview.
NCSC's THREE-PILLAR FRAMEWORK |
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UnderstandKnow where old technology leaves you exposed. Map the vulnerabilities in your supply chain before they are exploited. |
DefendApply security updates consistently. Control access. Implement Cyber Essentials. Larger organisations must go further still. |
RespondPlan for the moment systems go down. Know how to keep operating. Know how to rebuild at scale. |
On the first pillar, Horne was explicit about the nature of the risk:
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" Understand where you're running on old technology that can't be kept up to date and can't have its vulnerabilities fixed. Understand the vulnerabilities in your supply chain that could come to bite you. " RICHARD HORNE, CEO - NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY CENTRE, BBC RADIO 4, 7 MAY 2026 |
On defence, he pointed organisations towards the Cyber Essentials scheme - a well-established, government-backed certification that sets out a baseline of technical controls - while acknowledging that larger organisations will need to build considerably more sophisticated capabilities on top of that foundation.
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" Make sure you're applying security updates across your whole enterprise as much as possible. Make sure you've got the right defences in place, make sure you're controlling who can log on where and things like that, and we often call them the cyber essentials. There's a well established scheme and guidance on the NCSC website and a whole ecosystem in the UK to help with that. " RICHARD HORNE, CEO - NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY CENTRE, BBC RADIO 4, 7 MAY 2026 |
The Pillar That Defines Survival: Respond
It was on the third pillar - Respond - that Horne's language carried particular weight. And it is here that the conversation becomes directly relevant to what YUDU Sentinel is built to do.
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" Respond is the final bit, and that's where many organisations need the whole organisation to think about how they would continue operations if IT and communication systems were disrupted. And how would they rebuild at scale if that scenario happened? " RICHARD HORNE, CEO - NATIONAL CYBER SECURITY CENTRE, BBC RADIO 4, 7 MAY 2026 |
Two questions sit at the heart of that statement.
- First: can you keep operating when your primary systems are unavailable?
- Second: can you rebuild at scale when the incident is over?
Both demand planning that extends far beyond the IT department, and both demand tools that function even when the normal infrastructure they rely on has been compromised or shut down.
NCSC GUIDANCE - RESPONDING TO A RANSOMWARE ATTACKImmediate actions for medium & large organisationsImmediately disconnect infected computers and devices from all network connections — wired, wireless, and mobile In serious cases, consider disabling Wi-Fi, core network switches, and disconnecting from the internet entirely Reset credentials, especially for administrator and system accounts — while ensuring you do not lock yourself out of recovery systems Safely wipe infected devices and reinstall operating systems Before restoring from backup, verify the backup itself is clean and free from malware Monitor network traffic and run antivirus scans to confirm no infection remains Report the incident via gov.uk/report-cyber |
Read carefully, this list reveals a fundamental challenge that is rarely addressed directly: the moment an organisation disconnects its networks, it also loses the communications infrastructure it would normally use to coordinate a response. Email systems go down. Internal chat platforms become unreachable. The very tools used to manage a crisis are often the first casualties of the crisis itself.
This is not an edge case. In the 2021 HSE ransomware attack - the incident Horne personally reviewed - staff resorted to paper records and verbal communication to maintain patient care. The communication breakdown was, in many respects, as damaging as the data loss itself.
The Role of Out-of-Band Communications
This is precisely the gap that YUDU Sentinel is designed to fill. Out-of-band communications - systems that operate independently of an organisation's primary IT infrastructure - are not a luxury for large enterprises. They are a prerequisite for any meaningful response capability.
YUDU SENTINEL - HOW WE SUPPORT THE RESPOND PILLARCommunicate When Normal Channels Are DownYUDU Sentinel provides a dedicated, resilient communications platform that sits entirely outside your standard IT environment. When primary systems are unavailable - whether due to ransomware, a denial-of-service attack, or a deliberate network shutdown as part of your response - Sentinel keeps your leadership, crisis team, and key stakeholders connected and informed. |
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Out-of-band communications, independent of primary IT infrastructure Pre-loaded response plans and crisis playbooks, accessible offline Multi-channel alerting - app, SMS, email, and voice - with delivery confirmation |
Secure mass notification to staff, leadership, and external stakeholders Encrypted, auditable messaging for regulatory and legal compliance Designed for activation under pressure, with minimal technical dependency |
A Whole-Organisation Responsibility
One of Horne's most important points this morning was the framing of cyber resilience as a whole-organisation responsibility, not a technical one. The word "organisation" - rather than "IT team" - was deliberate. Boards, executives, operations leads, and communications directors all have a role to play in the Respond phase. That means planning, practising, and equipping every part of the organisation to function when the normal operating environment is unavailable.
The NCSC's broader guidance echoes this. Its resources on effective communications during a cyber incident, published in October 2024, recognise that managing the narrative - with staff, customers, regulators, and the media - is as important as managing the technical recovery. Getting that wrong can compound reputational and regulatory damage long after the systems are back online.
The current global geo-political situation adds further urgency. Frontier AI tools have lowered the barrier for sophisticated attacks, enabling threat actors to operate at a scale and speed that would have been implausible even three years ago. The organisations that will fare best are not necessarily those with the most advanced defences - they are those that have planned most rigorously for what happens when those defences are breached.
Is Your Organisation Ready to Respond?Find out how YUDU Sentinel's out-of-band communication platfrom supports the NCSC's Respond framework - and keeps your teams connected when it matters most. |
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Written byEdward Jones
07 May 2026
07 May 2026
A digital marketing expert with 10+ years experience across the full range of disciplines. Edward has an extensive history as a writer, with more than 300+ published articles across the technology and digital publishing sectors.
