Civil servant, cyber security expert — Lindy Cameron, UK’s 1st woman high commissioner to India

Civil servant, cyber security expert — Lindy Cameron, UK’s 1st woman high commissioner to India

New Delhi: Lindy Cameron, a Belfast-born civil servant who has served in Afghanistan and Iraq, will be taking up charge as the UK’s High Commissioner to India this month. She is the first woman to serve in this role since Britain and independent India established diplomatic relations in 1947.

According to an announcement by the UK government, Cameron will replace the incumbent envoy to India, Alex Ellis. Ellis served three years in New Delhi and will take up his next assignment as UK envoy to Spain. Reacting to Cameron’s posting, Ellis said: “A great appointment to a lovely job with an excellent team in a fascinating, vast & diverse country. Enjoy it!”.

The Indian government has approved Cameron’s appointment and she will present her credentials upon invitation from the President of India, Droupadi Murmu.

Cameron has experience in cyber security, conflict and security roles and has in the past served at the Royal College of Defence Studies which instructs senior officers of the armed forces and civil services in defence and international security.

Her most recent role was as CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), the UK’s principal technical authority on cyber security, from October 2020 to February 2024.

A great appointment to a lovely job with an excellent @UKinIndia team in a fascinating, vast & diverse country. Enjoy it! https://t.co/Dco01AkqbF

— Alex Ellis (@AlexWEllis) April 11, 2024

Besides overseeing the cyber resilience of the UK’s national infrastructure, she also played a role in identifying risks and opportunities for the UK in emerging technologies. Last February, Cameron visited India to meet with academics, businesses and state government representatives to discuss advances in cyber security and protection from potential threats.

This week NCSC CEO @Lindy_Cameron is visiting India to meet with academics, businesses and state government representatives to discuss advances in cyber security and how to protect ourselves from threats.

— NCSC UK (@NCSC) February 2, 2023

Cameron shares close ties with UK intelligence chief Jeremy Fleming, who heads the Government Communications Headquarters. “I’ve known Jeremy for a while and he called me up to ask me if I was interested (to head NCSC),” Cameron told The New Statesman in a 2021 interview at NCSC’s headquarters in London.

“We had a really great conversation about how the skill set that I had – which was effectively about convening across Whitehall and being able to communicate a set of tricky issues really effectively – would work in this space,” she said on how she bagged the top job at the NCSC.

Cameron’s stint as the UK’s top cyber security official came not just during the Covid-19 pandemic, but also at a time of major cyber threats across the globe, including a massive cyberattack on US federal government agencies in late 2020.

Before her role with the NCSC, Cameron served as Director General for the Northern Ireland Office from 2019-2020. The office primarily supports the Secretary of State for Northern Ireland – a constituent country in the UK – in dealing with its affairs and effectively representing its interests in the British Parliament.

From 1998 to 2007, she undertook postings to Kabul, Afghanistan and Baghdad, Iraq under the UK Department for International Development which is responsible for administering foreign aid. She specialised in post-conflict reconstruction and worked on the ground with military and intelligence officers from the UK. She has also served in governance adviser roles including postings to Hanoi and Lagos and in the Balkans.

(Edited by Tikli Basu)