The UK authorities is planning to ban public sector our bodies, together with faculties and the NHS, from paying crypto ransomware funds to cyber criminals.
That’s in keeping with a session launched right this moment by the House Workplace. The concept behind the transfer is to make these establishments unattractive targets for hackers.
As well as, personal firms equivalent to utilities suppliers, and victims of ransomware assaults can be required to report each ransomware incident in keeping with the brand new session.
In 2021, Britain’s former cybersecurity chief mentioned that companies paying ransomware attackers, usually in cryptocurrency, are inadvertently funding organized crime and that the state of affairs is “close to getting out of control.”
In accordance with right this moment’s announcement, 13 ransomware incidents, a part of the 430 cyber incidents that occurred between September 2023 and August 2024, “posed serious harm to essential services or the wider economy.”
Safety Minister Dan Jarvis mentioned, “With an estimated $1 billion flowing to ransomware criminals globally in 2023, it is vital we act to protect national security as a key foundation upon which this government’s Plan for Change is built.”
Final yr, the UK’s Nationwide Crime Company helped disrupt the felony group Lockbit final yr. The ransomware group is attributed to the information leak of Evolve Financial institution and Belief.
