Link: The Communications Act 2003 and the Digital Economy Act 2017 (Consequential Amendments to Secondary Legislation) Regulations 2017
Source: Legislation .gov.uk
Press release: Government celebrates cyber security successes in Manchester
The First Secretary of State, Damian Green, spoke at the landmark opening of the new global headquarters of the NCC Group in Manchester, marking the first anniversary of the creation of the National Cyber Security Strategy (NCSS).
The NCSS was launched a year ago in response to the growing cyber security challenges and threats faced by the UK and to define the Government’s ambitions for the future.
As a part of this world-leading strategy the government invested £1.9 billion in establishing the innovative National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), demonstrating a long-term commitment to keeping the UK safe. Since its launch the NCSC has responded to over 590 significant cyber incidents: providing support to victims, sharing information with intelligence and law enforcement, and setting up incident management structures to ensure essential services are up and running once incidents have occurred.
The First Secretary spoke at the headquarters of the NCC Group – a global expert in cyber security and risk mitigation. The newly built headquarters in Manchester equipped with state of the art technology will employ more than 500 cyber security experts providing Britain’s and Europe’s largest companies with cyber security consultancy and cyber incident response.
Damian Green, First Secretary of State and Minister for the Cabinet Office said:
This Government is committed to tackling the growing threat of cyber security and will continue to invest in the future of our defence programme.
The Government’s Cyber Schools programme aims to provide skills to nearly 6,000 young people in order to secure the UK’s position as a world leader in cyber security for generations to come.
I am delighted that a global cyber security expert has chosen to open their headquarters in Manchester – fuelling the success of the Northern Powerhouse.
Brian Tenner, Interim CEO at NCC Group said:
NCC Group continues to play a pivotal role in advising government and helping to implement national initiatives which are strengthening the UK’s cyber security posture and helping to improve the country’s technical capabilities in this area. The First Secretary’s visit is recognition of this continuing support and we were delighted to welcome him to our company headquarters today.
The threat of cyber crime is an ever-evolving issue that is increasing in severity every day. It is encouraging that the UK Government is treating this as a priority and putting concrete strategies in place to address this. We will continue to offer our assistance and work closely with the UK Government on these new initiatives in order to improve the UK’s ability to defend against modern cyber threats.
Link: Press release: Government celebrates cyber security successes in Manchester
Source: Gov Press Releases
ISO/IEC 27007:2017 Information technology. Security techniques. Guidelines for information security management systems auditing
ISO/IEC 27034-5:2017 Information technology. Security techniques. Application security Protocols and application security controls data structure
Weekly Threat Report 17th March 2017
Ransomware for political ends
Cyber security company PaloAlto networks has recently identified a new type of ransomware, seemingly designed for political ends. Ransomware is generally used by cyber criminals for monetary gain, encrypting data and forcing infected users to pay a financial ransom to decrypt their files. However, in this case, ‘RanRan’ ransomware demanded a political statement in return for the encryption key. The victim was supposed to create a sub-domain of their…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 17th March 2017
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 18th November 2016
Carbanak is Back
It is being reported that the hospitality sector is being targeted by the cyber-crime group Carbanak (also known as Anunak). The Carbanak gang were first identified by Kaspersky and are best known for a campaign in 2014 where they allegedly stole $1 billion from over 100 financial institutions worldwide. Security researchers at Trustwave have reported that Carbanak are now targeting the U.S. hospitality and restaurant industry’s point of sale systems.
The campaign…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 18th November 2016
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 5th January 2018
‘Meltdown’ and ‘Spectre’ vulnerabilities to microprocessors
Reports of new security flaws affecting microprocessors called ‘Meltdown’ and ‘Spectre’ surfaced this week. Processors in most devices employ a range of techniques to speed up their operation, and the vulnerabilities allow some of these techniques to be abused to obtain information about areas of memory not normally visible to an attacker. As a result, normally difficult actions – such as recovering passwords…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 5th January 2018
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 27th April 2018
Cost of ransomware attack on Atlanta
As reported in the Weekly Threat Report of 6 April 2018, the US city of Atlanta recently fell victim to an attack by the SamSam ransomware, which exploits a vulnerability in Java servers.
New reports indicate the city spent in the region of $2.66m responding to the attack. Costs included incident response, recovery and crisis management, but the city did not pay the ransom demand, reported to be approximately $55,000. There was also a broader cost in…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 27th April 2018
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 3rd November 2017
Fake speeding notices deliver malware
Police forces around the UK are warning motorists not to be taken in by a phishing email falsely informing them that they need to pay a speeding fine. The realistic-looking email, entitled ‘Notice of Prosecution’, claims to have ‘photographic’ evidence, but clicking on the associated link will upload banking malware to the victim’s device.
The email appears official, with the logos of either the local police force or ‘…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 3rd November 2017
Source: NCSC Reports
Weekly Threat Report 14th July 2017
China to ban personal VPNs
The Chinese government has told state-owned telecoms companies to block individuals’ access to virtual private networks (VPNs) by 1 February 2018, according to media reports. The ban will greatly restrict individuals’ unfettered access to the Internet. VPNs have often been used to circumvent China’s Great Firewall and communicate securely with servers outside of China. The Chinese government has increasingly cracked down on them in pursuit of…
Link: Weekly Threat Report 14th July 2017
Source: NCSC Reports