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Public sector security failings leave UK at risk, says think tank - Comment from an Opentext company Webroot
October 2020 by KELVIN MURRAY, SENIOR THREAT RESEARCH ANALYST AT WEBROOT
According to a new report compiled for think tank Reform [2], noted
a spike in cyber-attacks against public sector bodies across Europe and
said this should prompt fears over the "patchwork" nature of cyber
security in the UK’s public sector. The comment from KELVIN MURRAY, SENIOR THREAT RESEARCH ANALYST
AT WEBROOT [3] thoughts on this report.
_"_It’s clear that the public sector is currently vulnerable to
cyberattacks, having been facing different challenges around
cybersecurity throughout COVID-19. State bodies provide essential
services and as such are vulnerable to disruptive attacks like
ransomware. They also handle very valuable private, operational and
political data and are a tempting target for malicious state and
criminal actors alike. As networks go, the government is huge and
disjointed and contains many separate parts that are difficult to manage
and secure.
It’s therefore crucial for public sector organisations to consider
cybersecurity defences as a necessity, and have the necessary budget and
mindset to implement them. Secondly, data must always be backed up so
systems can be restored if needed. It is also important to take a
corporate culture shift seriously. Staff training is essential for
defending against such attacks, so that employees know what to look out
for and the training materials used also need to be continuously updated
to reflect the latest threat trends, and regular simulations should be
run to ensure that the training has the desired effect."
