by The British government has started a significant attempt to operate ransomware – since the particularly type of cyber attack continues to endanger life in the country.
Ransomware sees hacker then adopt systems and then block them down or steal data until a ransom is paid. It is estimated that the economy costs millions of pounds every year and has caused significant problems with the most important infrastructure, including hospitals and libraries.
Now the government says that it will try to pay the threat from ransomware with a number of measures, including the ban on the public sector, ransom of cybercriminals. This will make such cyber attacks less attractive for hackers and the organizations do less attractive destinations, it said.
All companies that are not covered by the ban would have to be informed to the government that they wanted to pay a ransom. This would enable the government to offer support and advice, including information, whether the payment of a ransom could violate the law by paying sanctioned cyber criminal groups
“Ransomware is a predatory crime in which the public is endangered, livelihood affects livelihood and threatens the services that we depend on,” said Dan Jarvis, the Security Minister. “By working with industry to promote these measures, we send a clear signal that Great Britain is united in the fight against ransomware.”
The government also asked private organizations to strengthen their protection against such attacks. This includes that offline backups and implementation of exercises, for example, can operate exercises without them.
Preparing for such attacks can be fatal, the government noticed and pointed out the recent discovery that a ransomware attack had contributed to the death of a patient.
The plans were preserved by organizations, including the British Library, which is still recovered from a huge cyber attack by a huge cyber attack.
“The British Library, which has one of the world’s most important collections of human knowledge, was the victim of a devastating ransomware attack in October 2023,” said Rebecca Lawrence, Managing Director of British Library.
“The attack has destroyed our technology infrastructure and continues to affect our users. However, as a public body, we did not deal with the attackers or paid for the ransom. Instead, we strive to share our experiences in order to protect others affected by cyber crime and to build the collective resilience for the future for the future.”
However, the ban on payment was drawn by others who argue that it could hinder organizations that may have no other option than to offer a ransom.
“While it prevents organizations from sounding ransomware payments in theory, this is a disaster in practice,” said Allie Mellen, main analyst at Forrester.
“If an organization pays a ransom, this is the case because you have no other option, not because you want it. Although it is unfortunate that ransomware payments take place, the better efforts for the protection of organizations to protect against such attacks should be spent.
