Business unity is essential to beat cyber attacks
Comment piece in The Times from Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster and No 10 Chief of Staff Steve Barclay and Director General of the CBI Tony Danker
6 April 2022
In the spring of 2021, America바카라 사이트™s Colonial Pipeline 바카라 사이트“ the 5,500-mile fuel superhighway, which supplies half the East Coast바카라 사이트™s petrol and diesel 바카라 사이트“ abruptly shut down for six days. The cause was a cyber-attack, launched by a Russian-based criminal gang. The stuff of nightmares for every board director.
President Putin바카라 사이트™s war in Ukraine has included cyber-attacks on the country바카라 사이트™s government and banking sites. Western intelligence has warned that more is likely to come, with Russian cyber actors potentially already pre-positioned in Ukrainian IT systems, collecting intelligence and preparing to launch disruptive activities.
The UK has given strong support for Ukraine and is proud to have helped coordinate the international regime of sanctions against Moscow, and many British businesses including CBI members have led the way in divesting from Russia and Belarus.
While the NCSC is not aware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to the Russian invasion, there is a heightened risk of hostile cyber activity. In the last year, two in five UK businesses were subject to some form of cyber-attack or attempted breach.
If the UK is to be protected, 바카라 사이트 and business must act as one.
That is why today, as lead Minister for Cyber Security and as head of the UK바카라 사이트™s biggest business organisation, we are jointly calling on businesses to work together and treat cyber security as a core boardroom responsibility; an equal threat to financial and other risks.
Strengthening collaboration and resilience forms a core part of the 바카라 사이트바카라 사이트™s National Cyber Security Strategy, backed with £2.6 billion of funding. This includes record investment to the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ, to provide resources and bringing together businesses. Like the meeting today of directors of critical national infrastructure operators, such as airports, powerplants and major banks, to examine, challenge and support preparations against cyber threats.
However, it isn바카라 사이트™t just critical national infrastructure that need to take action. 바카라 사이트 is also appointing senior business expertise to our new National Cyber Advisory Board, bringing the lessons learned by all businesses to challenge and guide the UK바카라 사이트™s approach and encourage lessons learnt and greater collaboration.
A cyber-attack recognises no physical or geographical boundary, and cyber criminals thrive on the unwillingness of companies to share their experiences.
Companies must stress test their whole supply chains바카라 사이트™ cyber security, right down to the smallest partner, because any weakness can be exploited. This isn바카라 사이트™t hypothetical. The attack on the Colonial Pipeline, which disrupted the lives of millions due to supply shortages, a fuel price spike, petrol stations running dry, was down to the theft of a single password.
The reluctance to share when something goes wrong is completely understandable, but cyber security is one area where healthy rivalry of business will not help, and where cooperation and sharing lessons-learned, within and between our organisations, will make us all safer, along with the customers and the public that we serve.
By to the NCSC Incident Management team, businesses will be supported and their evidence will contribute to a greater understanding to combat attacks more effectively in the future, and by following their Cyber Essentials guidance at all levels of the business, you바카라 사이트™ll be better protected. The public can also help - like phishing emails to the NCSC has already helped identify and remove 76,000 scams from the internet.
The greatest weakness in cyber defences is often human error, just look at the Colonial Pipeline experience. While businesses have long recognised the importance of cyber security, the urgency is now much clearer. Russia바카라 사이트™s invasion has increased the risk and, as the Russian economy retracts under the weight of sanctions, more cyber criminals will look to the West and the UK.
That means UK plc and 바카라 사이트 acting as one, prioritising cyber security so the country can defend itself as one.