Businesses and organisations in the UK must ramp up their cyber security defences after intelligence suggested a heightened risk of Russian state-sponsored attacks online.
An alert issued by the Five Eyes intelligence alliance, which consists of the UK, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the US, warned that Moscow was exploring options for cyber attacks against critical organisations such as the NHS, nuclear power stations and the civil service.
According to the alert, hackers within the Russian government are seeking to engage in “malicious cyber activity” in response to the economic sanctions imposed on Russia following its invasion of Ukraine. There is also concern the hackers will target critical infrastructure in countries that have provided “material support” to Ukrainian forces.
There are also risks posed by a number of cybercrime groups that pledge their support to Russia, including Killnet, a group that claimed credit for a DDoS attack against a US airport that it believed was supporting Ukraine. In response to the increased risk, the Five Eyes alert outlines action people can take to “prepare for and mitigate potential cyber threats”.
These include immediately updating software, enforcing multifactor authentication, securing and monitoring “potentially risky” services such as remote desktop protocols, and providing end-user awareness and training. Steve Barclay MP, the minister responsible for cyber security, told the Daily Telegraph newspaper: “Cyber attacks recognise no physical or geographical boundary and it has never been more important to plan and invest in cyber resilience.”
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