British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab took the opportunity this afternoon, whilst anchoring the daily UK Coronovirus TV virtual news conference, to strongly highlight the damaging attempts of cyber-criminals & ‘bad state-actors’ to high-jack the pandemic crisis for nefarious purposes.
He also mentioned university research groups & pharmaceutical companies being targeting as they research for vaccines & treatments, and observed that a range of steps were being taken in order to provide protection.
Warning
Emphasising the need for vigilance by both business, government & the general public he revealed that both the British National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), & its US counterpart had issued additional guidance today in order to help protect data integrity.
Government Awareness
The Foreign Secretary explained that the government were well aware of the massive surge in attempts to break into systems & commits fraud in the current situation, & made particular reference to ‘phishing attacks’ and to Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) groups, which are widely classified as organisations that lead, “attacks on a country’s information assets of national security or strategic economic importance through either cyber-espionage or cyber-sabotage.’
Importance
That the UK Govt. felt it absolutely necessary to use such an important national public forum to deliver such a strong prepared statement, indicates the seriousness with which the issue of cyber-security is taken by the Cabinet at this critical time, & the determination to use every tool at its disposal to both raise awareness, and to stop & repel breaches.
