Recent Cybersecurity News from UK & Ireland

Jul 06, 2021 / Emre Karabagli

Cyberattacks are constant concerns of the enterprises and government agencies in today’s digital world. Although UK networks are also under the threat of cyberattacks as those in many other countries, the country nonetheless faces hundreds of intrusions each year. We are going mention about some these threats today, let’s check the latest news.

Here are some recent updates from the UK & Ireland region:

Lindy Cameron, Head of the National Cybersecurity Centre (NCSC) which is part of Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ) stated that cyber criminals are becoming highly professional by attacking profitable businesses. Cameron stressed ransomware criminals are the number one cybersecurity threat of the moment. Having said that, ransomware is a type of a malicious software designed to block access to a computer system until a sum of money is paid. Furthermore, the CEO stated the ecosystem is being evolved into a Ransomware as a Service (RaaS) model. The CEO finished her words by announcing a new cyber strategy to see the future in detail.
Legal and professional services group Gateley had reported a recent cybersecurity incident which is now currently under control. Company’s IT team managed to identify the breach rapidly and secured the systems. The company announced an approximate of 0.2% data had been impacted and this data included some client data as well. Gateley reported that they informed the Information Commissioner's Office.

CEO Rod Waldie said, “IT security is of paramount importance to Gateley and we had carefully planned for the occurrence of risk that a cyber breach could have on the business. Incidents of this nature are, sadly, prevalent. I am grateful that the prompt actions of our IT team have limited the impact of this incident and enabled us to resume our business operations swiftly.” The Company stated they will inform the market if there are any notifiable changes to the situation. Gateley has 13 offices in the UK and revenue of £110M in 2020.

UK Home Secretary Priti Patel had a statement at CyberUK Conference that as of September 2020 there were an estimated 1.7 million cybercrimes in England and Wales. The computer misuse incidents led to a loss of over £1B. Nearly 2 out of every 5 businesses in the UK identified at least one cybersecurity breach or attack in the last 12 months. Home Secretary also stated the Computer Misuse Act has been effective in battling against unauthorized access to computer systems but also announced a call for information to take a formal review on the Act this year.
A massive cyberattack on Ireland’s health system disabled the country’s health services for a week, preventing health officials from accessing significant patient data. The attackers used ransomware, holding significant data of the country’s health system. At first, the attackers demanded £14M to restore services but later it was reported the attackers handed the software to help the Irish government recover. The Irish government stated no ransom was paid and later announced they aware the stolen data might be made public.

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