Major cyber-attacks have surged by 50% in past year, UK security agency warns

The UK’s security agency, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has revealed a significant escalation in the cyber threat and is now dealing with a new nationally significant attack more than every other day.

The national security officials and ministers are urging all organizations from the smallest businesses to the largest employers, to create contingency plans for the eventuality.

The security minister Dan Jarvis and the technology and business secretaries, Liz Kendall and Peter Kyle, have written to the leaders of hundreds of the giant British companies, urging them to make cyber-resilient board-level responsibility and warning that hostile cyber-attacks in the UK have grown more intense and sophisticated.

The National Cyber Security Center addressed 429 cyber incidents in the year to September’ nearly half of those were classified as nationally significant, a figure that has more than doubled since the previous year.

Meanwhile, eighteen of those were highly significant as they had a serious impact on the government, the mass population, or the economy.

Most of them were ransomware incidents, including the attacks that significantly affected Marks&Spencer and the Co-op Group.

The National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has recorded the number of attacks in the year September as the highest level of cyber threat activity in the past nine years.

Hackers are increasingly using artificial intelligence (AI) to streamline operations and while the NSCS has not yet faced an AI -initiated attack, the agency stated, “We do see our attackers improving their ability to cause real impact and to inflict pain on the organizations they have breached and those who rely on them.”

The NCSC chief executive, Richard Horne said, “They don't care who they hit or how they hit them. That is why we need all organizations to act.”

The 50% surge in cyber-attacks proves that cybersecurity is now a matter of national resilience and business survival, and individuals have been deeply affected by attacks against their organizations.