A proposed UK initiative

Building the UK's coordinating centre for insider-threat research and response

Insider risk is one of the hardest, least-shared problems in security: the UK has world-class capability but no neutral place to pool it. UK-NITRRO — the UK National Insider Threat Research & Response Organisation — is a proposal to change that. We are convening an open forum and a clearing house across academia, government, industry and the vendor community.

Register your interest Read the proposition ↓
Problem

The problem

Insider threat incidents — malicious, negligent, or coerced — are rising, expensive, and structurally under-served. Whilst there are some indistry-vertical forums, the people best placed to solve it rarely share what they learn, because the incidents are sensitive and the expertise is fragmented.

Rising incidence

Organisations increasingly report growing numbers of insider incidents year on year.

Source: industry insider-threat surveys

Material cost

The average annual cost of insider incidents per organisation can run into the millions.

Source: independent cost-of-insider-threat research

Growing national concern

Insider risk is increasingly flagged across critical national infrastructure, defence supply chains and financial services.

Source: UK national security & sector strategy publications

What's missing isn't research or talent or good tools. It's coordination — a *neutral* place where the problem can be studied openly and lessons can be shared safely.

Approach

The approach

UK-NITRRO is proposed as a neutral, interdisciplinary body that connects three things that are separate today: rigorous research, operational practice, and the technology market. It combines the technical, the behavioural, and the practical.

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Two functions sit at the centre of the model: an open forum and a clearing house.

Open Forum

Think together in the open

A public, vendor-neutral community for everyone working on insider risk — researchers, practitioners, policy people and technology providers in the same room.

  • A shared research agenda — surfacing the questions the field most needs answered, set openly rather than by any single institution. Shaping and coordinating insider research funding priorities. 
  • Open outputs — publications, guidance and reference material produced in the open and free to use.
  • Working groups — focused groups on specific problems that anyone credible can join.
  • Events and convening — briefings, symposia and workshops across the usual boundaries.
  • A common vocabulary — aligning terminology, taxonomies and standards so findings are comparable.
Clearing House

Coordinate and share safely

A neutral coordinating hub that connects people, evidence and resources — routing knowledge to where it's needed without exposing anything sensitive.

  • Signposting and matchmaking — connecting organisations with the researchers, methods, standards or peers relevant to their problem.
  • A resource and tooling directory — an impartial map of approaches, methods and available solutions, including a vendor directory.
  • Aggregated, anonymised insight — Intelligence sharing : pooling de-identified patterns so the field learns from incidents no single organisation could share alone.
  • Standards coordination — helping align, extend and adopt shared standards rather than reinventing them.
  • A trusted broker — a neutral point of contact between sectors, disciplines and jurisdictions.
Participate

Who we're inviting

UK-NITRRO only works if it's built by the community it serves. We're seeking founding participants across every part of the field — these are illustrative categories; if your organisation works on insider risk, we want to hear from you.

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Get involved

How to get involved

01

Get in touch

Tell us who you are and how you'd like to be involved.

02

A conversation

We'll discuss where your organisation fits and what founding participation could look like.

03

Shape it

Founding participants help define priorities, governance and the shape of the forum and clearing house.

We're at the convening stage. Early participants have the most influence over what UK-NITRRO becomes.

Funding & delivery

Currently at the convening stage — already backed to get started

The initial phases of UK-NITRRO are funded through Lancaster University's Cyber-Focus programme. The initiative is being brought together through a collaboration between innov8cyber.xyz, egret.digital and the University of Lancashire.

Lancaster University Funded by Cyber-Focus innov8cyber.xyz egret.digital University of Lancashire
Contact

Register your interest

If any of this resonates — whether you're a researcher, an operator, a policymaker or a vendor — get in touch. Tell us who you are and how you'd like to be involved, and we'll follow up.

Email info@uk-nittro.org

We'll only use your details to respond to your enquiry.