CYBERSECURITY : A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH?

The damage caused by cyber attacks can affect the basic functioning of society and could even mean the difference between life and death.

Gloucester City Council’s planning application portal suffered a cyberattack last year. Months later the council is still trying to rectify the problem, and the final bill to sort the problem out could be more than £1 million.

In 2017, a cyber attack named WannaCry cost the NHS £92 million and 19,000 appointments were cancelled. The cyber attack severely disrupted more than 80 hospital trusts and almost 10 per cent of GP practices.

Since then, many more essential services such as transport, energy and finance – even local council services have become increasingly dependent on digital technologies.

Gloucester isn’t the only council to have been affected. Insurance company Gallagher investigated the scale of cyber crime against councils across the UK, with 161 local authorities sharing information. Based on the proportion of councils which shared data on cyber attacks, the size of

Paying a ransom won’t keep data safe says NCSC

Solicitors are being asked to play their part in keeping the UK safe online by helping tackle a rise in payments being made to ransomware criminals.

In a joint letter sent this summer to the Law Society, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) said paying a ransom will not keep data safe.

The NCSC, part of Cheltenham-based GCHQ, and the ICO say they have seen evidence of a rise in ransomware payments, and that in some cases solicitors may have been advising clients to pay, believing it will keep data safe or lead to a lower penalty from the ICO.

The organisations advised the Law Society that this is not that case. They do not condone paying ransoms, which can incentivise criminals and will not guarantee files are returned.

Ransomware involves the encrypting of an organisation’s files by cyber criminals, who demand money in exchange for providing access to them. These attacks are becoming more sophisticated.

Last December, the government launched its National Cyber Strategy, providing £2.6 billion to help strengthen the UK’s role as a responsible cyber power.

NCSC Chief Executive, Lindy Cameron, said: “Ransomware remains the biggest online threat to the UK.

“We have seen a recent rise in payments to ransomware criminals and the legal sector has a vital role to play in helping reverse that trend.” the problem is likely to be significantly greater, possibly more than 11 million by the end of the year, predicts Gallagher.

While most cyber attacks are intercepted by IT security in place, the councils revealed that collectively they had paid out more than £10 million over the past five years due to cyber crime in monies lost to hackers, legal costs and fines.

Technical Cyber Security expert Patrick O’Connor, writing for BCS, the Chartered Institute of IT, which is based in Swindon, said: “In a year of global inflation and massive rises in energy costs, it should come as no surprise that the cost of a data breach has also reached an all-time high.

“Trends for 2022 are still being analysed but it seems that many of the usual suspect groups are still active. Ransomware is still a major and terrifying threat to many companies. Surveys, like the IBM Security Cost of Data Breaches 2022, illuminate that most companies could do much better with just basic security best practices.

“The main attacks continue to be credential theft and phishing emails so it is vital to continue to raise awareness through corporate training and public ad campaigns.”