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New report points to a number of weak spots in UK’s Critical National Infrastructure

1 Mar., 2018

A new report evaluating the state of the UK’s Critical National Infrastructure (CNI) has revealed that the Emergency Services sector are most at risk of a major cyber-attack.

The UK Threat Landscape report, which was conducted by intelligence firm, Anomali, also concluded that there were many “weak spots” within UK CNI’s which could be exploited by malicious attackers.

With a host of attacks plaguing the healthcare industry over the past year, this news may not come as a surprise. The WannaCry attacks brought the UK health system to a standstill and put lives at risk, as over 19,000 medical appointments were cancelled, with computers at 600 GP surgeries infected by the malware.

The devastation and disruption caused by the high-profile incidents’ like WannaCry, NotPetya and BadRabbit, act as a harsh reminder that there is a critical need to have systems and the data within them, protected -  especially as these attacks are now becoming a tool for cyberwarfare.

Organizations understand this and it is estimated that security spending is to hit $96 billion globally in 2018, a rise of 8 percent from 2017 as organizations react to the emerging cyber threats.

Stress tests are regularly conducted on the Financial Services sector, which is also a CNI, due to the high volume of cyber attacks the industry receives. Those within the industry understand that a detrimental cyber attack to this sector would have a severe impact on the economy.

For those that are unaware of what constitutes a CNI, the definition is a service or organization that provides an essential service, with the destruction of such service having a devastating impact on society, the economy, national economic security, national public health or safety or a combination of these elements.

As well as being critical infrastructures, these systems store valuable data. Therefore, it is essential that CNI’s meet the demands of cyber by investing in the necessary solutions to help protect them and crucial data on UK citizens.


Further reading:

Enterprises Should Investigate Risks For Data Breaches When Using Third Party Cloud Data Processors

 

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