Our Future Health is one of the first to sign the government’s new Cyber Resilience Pledge

News – 7 July 2026
Chief Executive Dr Raghib Ali OBE visited 10 Downing Street to represent Our Future Health at the launch of the new pledge

Today the government launched the Cyber Resilience Pledge, part of the new National Cyber Action Plan to tackle the increasing threat of cyber crimes, which are committed once every six seconds in the UK. It’s estimated that cyber attacks cost the UK £14.7 billion each year.

Our Future Health has joined over 60 organisations, including ITV, Microsoft UK and Cloudflare, in this pledge to strengthen our cyber security defences. As the UK’s largest health research programme, we collect and securely store health information from millions of participants.

Because of this, it’s our responsibility towards our participants and researchers that we take every step we can to keep this data safe. We are already certified to the ISO27001 standard, an international standard of best practice for information security controls, set by the International Organisation for Standardization (ISO). Signing the Cyber Resilience Pledge represents another layer of commitment to enhance our resilience against cyber attacks.

Our Chief Executive Dr Raghib Ali OBE visited 10 Downing Street for the launch of the new pledge, which is voluntary for organisations of different sizes and sectors. The pledge requires all signatories to:

  • Ensure that cyber security is a board-level responsibility. This includes implementing the Cyber Governance Code of Practice and requiring all board members to complete the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Cyber Governance Training.
  • Register for the NCSC’s Early Warning service. This is a free tool that alerts organisations to any suspicious activity on their networks, giving them a chance to identify cyber threats before they escalate.
  • Adopt a risk-based approach towards encouraging all suppliers to meet the government-backed Cyber Essentials certification. Our Future Health itself is already Cyber Essentials Plus certified.

The pledge is a key pillar of the upcoming National Cyber Action Plan, which will set out the government’s plans for protection against cyber threats in the era of AI. This includes new measures under the National Security Bill, AI-defensive capabilities and new secure technologies.
 
Dr Raghib Ali said: “I’m proud to represent Our Future Health as one of the first organisations to commit to the Cyber Resilience Pledge. A lack of trust, particularly around data security, can affect people’s relationships with health research. Our participants have trusted us to protect their data, and this trust is essential for us to enable groundbreaking discoveries in health research so people can live longer, healthier lives. This is why Our Future Health takes seriously our responsibility to keep data secure, and signing this pledge represents our ongoing commitment to our participants.”

Read our pledge here: Cyber Resilience Pledge – Our Future Health