SWOC/T Analysis: Final assignment Security: Actors, Institutions and Constellations - Master Crisis and Security Management

SWOC/T Analysis of the National Cyber

Security Centre




Course: Security: Actors, Institutions and Constellations

Final assignment: SWOC/T analysis

Academic year: 2020-2021

Word count (excl. references + appendix): 3509




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,1. Introduction

The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is a public organisation which is part of the

Ministry of Justice and Security in The Netherlands. Their task is to protect the (1) central

governmental bodies and (2) the vital infrastructure in The Netherlands from threats in

cyberspace (Rijksoverheid 2020a). The NCSC is a security actor involved in policing, because it

aims at ensuring the security of the Dutch society, and the activities of the NCSC are designed to

achieve this goal (Button 2002: 6; ibid.). Because the NCSC is officially part of the Dutch

government, they can be classified as an organisation involved in ​policing by the government

(Loader 2000: 326).

An important part in the strategic planning process cycle is to do a ​Strengths,

Weaknesses, Opportunities and Challenges / Threats​ (SWOC/T) analysis of the organisation in

question (Bryson 2011). This is why in this document, you can find a SWOC/T analysis of the

NCSC, which will be presented by first illustrating the internal environment with its weaknesses

and strengths, followed by an assessment of the external environment and the accompanying

opportunities and challenges/threats, ending with a concluding section.



2. Internal environment

2.1 Mission

The NCSC wants to contribute to increasing the resilience of Dutch society in the ICT-domain.

The mission is to make The Netherlands digitally secure. The NCSC wants to achieve this

mission by collaborating with public and private parties (ACN 2020; DigitaleOverheid.nl 2020;

NCSC 2020a; IFV 2020). The organisation states that they find the digital infrastructure (and the




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, security thereof) of vital importance (Dutch: ​levensbelang​). If this infrastructure fails, the

consequences can be catastrophic, e.g. not getting clean water from a tap. This notion seems to

be in line with the vision of security as a ​prime value approach​, since without the security of

these systems, other important values cannot exist (Baldwin 1997: 19; NCSC 2020b). The more

specific goals of the NCSC are not presented in a central place. However, based on several

reports, the following sub-goals of the NCSC’s mission can be identified:

● To limit damage and quickly recover if a digital attack were to occur (NCTV 2020a);

● Creating a safe way of dealing with information through tips from the Baseline

Information-security Government document (abbreviation: BIO) (Leisink 2020);

● Being able to bundle capacities and knowledge from signers of the National Response

Network when a cyber-incident occurs (NCSC.nl 2020);

● To inform managers of the NCSC’s target group of the dangers of ransomware and how

to deal with it (NCSC-FS 2020).



2.2 Values

The NCSC has three core values: understanding, connecting and preventing. Firstly, they

understand​ the vulnerabilities and threats in the digital domain. The NCSC identifies and

indicates the trends and risks in cyberspace. They aim for the knowledge they collect to be

broadly accessible. Secondly, the NCSC ​connects​ knowledge, parties and information. Being a

governmental organisation, they operate as the link in a network of national and international

partners. Thirdly, the NCSC ​prevents​ and limits societal threats by offering expert support and

advice. With their studies, analysis and products, they offer a direct operating perspective. When

there is a cybersecurity crisis, they are available 24/7 for help. Next to the three main values,




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