One password is believed to have been all it took for a ransomware gang to destroy a 158-year-old company and put 700 people out of work. KNP – a Northamptonshire transport company – is just one of tens of thousands of UK businesses that have been hit by such attacks.
Big names such as M&S, Co-op and Harrods have all been attacked in recent months. The chief executive of Co-op confirmed last week that all 6.5 million of its members had had their data stolen. In KNP’s case, it’s thought the hackers managed to gain entry to the computer system by guessing an employee’s password, after which they encrypted the company’s data and locked its internal systems.
Read more…
Source: BBC News
Sign up for the Cyber Security Review Newsletter
The latest cyber security news and insights delivered right to your inbox
Related:
- Google Taking Over Health Records Raises Patient Privacy Fears
November 21, 2018
Three years ago, artificial intelligence company DeepMind embarked on a landmark effort to transform health care in the U.K. Now plans by owner Alphabet Inc. to wrap the partnership into its Google search engine business are tripping alarm bells about privacy. Data protection advocates cried foul when the company reversed course on an earlier pledge to keep DeepMind ...
- Coming soon: Better collaboration, sharing with U.S. allies, IC CIO Sherman says
October 31, 2018
The U.S. intelligence community is working to improve collaboration and communication with its Five Eyes allies and beyond. Intelligence community CIO John Sherman plans “in just a couple weeks” to convene CIOs from Five Eyes allied nations — Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United Kingdom — “to work through some of these issues” concerning intelligence collaboration ...
- UK MoD secrets exposed in dozens of cyber security breaches
October 15, 2018
Ministry of Defence secrets were exposed in dozens of breaches of military cyber security policy last year, as hostile nations and spy agencies continue to probe the UK’s defence sector. Heavily redacted reports obtained by Sky News have revealed that the MoD and its partners failed to protect military and defence data in 37 incidents in ...
- DASA new competition: Behavioural Analytics
October 11, 2018
The Defence and Security Accelerator is seeking proposals that can help UK Defence and Security to develop capability in ‘Behavioural Analytics’. This Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) competition is seeking proposals that can help UK Defence and Security to develop capability in ‘Behavioural Analytics’. We are looking for scientific and technological solutions that can provide context-specific ...
- UK pins ‘reckless campaign of cyber attacks’ on Russian military intelligence
October 4, 2018
The UK government this morning pointed the finger at Russian military intelligence for a litany of cyber nasties. In the bulletin, the UK government’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) declared that a range of attacks blamed on the Kremlin are actually the work of Russian military intelligence, GRU. This comes in the wake of long-standing concerns that Russia ...
- Security & Counter Terror Expo 2019 – The UK’s Leading National Security Event, 5-6 March 2019, Olympia, London
October 2, 2018
Security & Counter Terror Expo is a world-class showcase of the capabilities, strategies and intelligence to keep nations, infrastructure, business and people safe. Stepping into a New Decade After celebrating its 10-year anniversary, Security & Counter Terror Expo is launching a brand new decade with its 2019 edition. The goal of the 2019 campaign is to see a ...

