A freedom of information request by privacy campaign group Big Brother
Watch has revealed the shocking statistic that a quarter of all UK councils have had their IT systems breached in the past five years.

37 Attempted Cyber Attacks Every Minute

The ‘Cyber Attacks In Local Authorities’ report from Big Brother Watch shows that local governments are subject to cyber attack attempts at the staggering rate of 37 per minute!

Thankfully, only a tiny fraction of the attacks launched are successful although this still represents a serious problem. For example, 114 councils experienced at least one incident between 2013 and 2017.

High Stakes

The nature of the work of UK Councils is such that they hold a large amount of up-to-date personal data for people in their areas, so one successful breach can have very serious consequences.

Not Disclosing Breaches

One particularly worrying aspect of council behaviour exposed by the report is that, from the data gathered, few seem to have reported losses and breaches of data, which is something that organisations will be required to do within 72 hours under GDPR when it comes into force in May.

Human Error – Training Needed

As in so many companies and organisations, human error is often a factor in breaches. In 2015, for example, Big Brother Watch has exposed how local authorities committed 4 data breaches a day, all thought to be predominantly caused by human error.

Big Brother Watch has also revealed that that, despite the number and seriousness of the breaches, little action has been taken by UK councils to increase staff awareness and education in matters of cyber security and data protection. For example, it has been disclosed that 75% of local authorities do not provide mandatory training in cyber security awareness for staff, and that16% do not provide any training at all!

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

Some commentators have been quick to point out that bearing in mind how much sensitive data councils hold about citizens, and the incredible amount of attempted cyber attacks against them, they could be making more of an effort and an investment to beef-up security.

Other commentators have noted that cuts to council budgets e.g. with austerity measures may have played their part in limiting cyber security effectiveness in UK councils.

After the shocking findings of the report, Big Brother Watch issued some recommendations to local authorities which could very well apply to other businesses and organisations. These are:

• Cyber security should be prioritised, and that rather than investing too much in surveillance technologies, more should be invested in cyber security strategies and in the training of staff.
• Cyber security incidents should be consistently reported, and that a protocol needs to be established so that incidents are reported quickly and to the right authorities e.g. the police, the ICO, and the National Cyber Security Centre.
• All staff should receive mandatory training in cyber security because Cyber attacks are not only designed to breach computer systems, but also to exploit humans who are often the weakest cyber security link.

The Malwarebytes annual State of Malware report has revealed that the UK
is now the most targeted region in the world for cyber threats.

Big Rises

The UK has been elevated to the unenviable position at the top of the targets table after a huge 165% increase in UK bound ransomware was recorded, and after a 134% rise in hijacking attempts against British machines. This means that as well as being most at risk, the UK’s ransomware attack rate is now double that of the US.

Why Is The UK Being Targeted?

One reason is that ransomware use worldwide saw a 90+% increase against businesses in 2017 up until the end of year, when ransomware’s use began to decrease as criminals turned more to the use of banking Trojans and cryptocurrency mining. In 2017, the UK was famously hit by the massive WannaCry ransomware attack, which is believed to have originated in North Korea, claimed victims in 150 countries, and led to around 130,000 infections of computers. Older computer systems, such as those in the NHS, were particularly badly affected.

Spyware Increase

The Malwarebytes data also showed a big increase in the use of spyware last year – an increase of 882%.

Move To Trojans

The report data also shows that cyber-criminals are turning to different attack methods as awareness is raised about ransomware and more measures are taken to combat it. For example, Trojans are now being used in more than 20% of global attacks, and the use of banking Trojans doubled in the second half of 2017.

Earlier this month, security researchers discovered a new type of malware (called Android.banker.A2f8a) targeting 232 banking apps on Android devices, stealing login details, hijacking SMSs, as well as uploading contact lists and SMSs on a malicious server. Banking Trojans of this kind can spy on the credentials entered by the user, and intercept incoming and outgoing SMS.

Move To Crypotocurrency Mining

It appears that cyber-criminals are also moving into cryptocurrency mining, using cryptomining tools to exploit malware infected machines in order to generate and steal digital currencies. Criminals were attracted by the rapid growth in the value of cyptocurrencies such as Bitcoin and Malwarebytes is reported to have blocked an average of 8 million drive-by mining attempts each day in September.

A recent report by Ernst & Young has also highlighted the fact that 10% of all funds raised through Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) are stolen by hackers using techniques such as Phishing.

What Does This Mean For Your Business?

In 2018, some security experts and commentators are predicting a further rise in the use of drive-by mining tools, new mining platforms and new forms of malware to steal virtual currencies. It seems that 2018’s criminals are more likely to be interested in simply stealing than rather than trying to hold businesses to ransom.

The IoT may continue to be a target, and businesses should be careful to guard against supply chain attacks, malware possibly targeting Mac computers, and more weaponised zero-day vulnerabilities. Giving 3rd parties in your company supply chain / value chain access to systems and sensitive data, combined with increased levels of sophistication in hacking tools and strategies, plus increased oversight from regulators, and potentially ‘weak link’ companies in terms of cyber-security now make the risk of supply chain attack very real for companies in 2018.

Businesses need to increase cyber-security awareness and training, and employ a holistic risk-based authentication infrastructure across multiple vectors in order to stay one step ahead of the developing cyber threat.

The use of enhanced technologies, and the assistance of  greater regulation for cryptocurrencies may also help to reduce some of the risks shown in the Malwarebytes report.