U.K. Government ‘Ill-Prepared’ to Deal With High Risk of Catastrophic Ransomware Attacks
A new report from the U.K. government’s Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) outlines both just how likely an attack on critical national infrastructure is and where they are vulnerable.
The impact of a coordinated cyberattack on the U.K.’s national infrastructure could impact millions of citizens within its country, according to the JCNSS’s report A hostage to fortune: ransomware and UK national security. The report uses a 2022 attack on the government of Costa Rica where online tax collection, public healthcare and the pay of some public sector workers was disrupted.
According to the report, the likelihood of such a coordinated attack on the U.K.’s critical national infrastructure (CNI) is between 5% and 25% with a “moderate” impact (for context, a major contamination of UK food supply is considered this level of impact, making “moderate” pretty damning!).
Despite this, the report spells out that parts of the U.K.’s CNI are using legacy systems and operational technologies, with the National Health Service being “particularly vulnerable.”
At a governmental level, the report calls for improvements in policy and strategy, oversight and ownership over how the CNI will ensure new policies are enforced, and united leadership and political will.
U.K. organizations that fall within the realm of CNI, much take far more practical steps to ensure they remain secure — steps that include a robust layered cybersecurity defense (that includes new-school security awareness training), an effective method of attack detection, and an efficient and exacting response to neutralize and mitigate threats.
KnowBe4 enables your workforce to make smarter security decisions every day. Over 65,000 organizations worldwide trust the KnowBe4 platform to strengthen their security culture and reduce human risk.
Free Ransomware Simulator Tool
Threat actors are constantly coming out with new strains to evade detection. Is your network effective in blocking all of them when employees fall for social engineering attacks?
KnowBe4’s “RanSim” gives you a quick look at the effectiveness of your existing network protection. RanSim will simulate 24 ransomware infection scenarios and 1 cryptomining infection scenario and show you if a workstation is vulnerable.
Here’s how it works:
- 100% harmless simulation of real ransomware and cryptomining infections
- Does not use any of your own files
- Tests 25 types of infection scenarios
- Just download the install and run it
- Results in a few minutes!
PS: Don’t like to click on redirected buttons? Cut & Paste this link in your browser: https://info.knowbe4.com/ransomware-simulator-tool-partner?partnerid=001a000001lWEoJAAW