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Untitled-20 1 18/02/16 10:18
wannacry the stand-out attack:
The Houses of
Parliament; among
high-profile cyberattacked
sites in
2017 - so far ....
Photo by Mark Rowe
About NCSC
While operational
since October 2016,
the NCSC’s new 160
Victoria Street, central
London headquarters
was opened by the
Queen and the Duke
of Edinburgh in
February. It’s part of
GCHQ (Government
Communications
Headquarters). See
the report at www.
ncsc.gov.uk.
Year of
incidents
for NCSC
It’s not possible to stop
every cyber-attack; hence
the official UK National
Cyber Security Centre (NCSC)
seeks to provide a ‘worldclass
incident management
service’, it says in its 2017
Annual Review on its first
year of operations.
The NCSC says it has prevented
thousands of attacks and
managed hundreds of incidents.
The centre reports that it has worked
with more than 50 countries across five
continents, including signing NATO’s
cyber Memorandum of Understanding.
Cases
Cyber attack cases it touches on
include on UK parliament in June;
and the global outbreak of Wannacry
ransomware in May, that hit NHS
trusts in the UK, besides 100 other
countries; a total of 230,000 computers
were infected worldwide. For the
UK, that meant diverted ambulances,
and cancelled operations. The NCSC
described Wannacry as its ‘biggest
test of the year’. It despatched staff to
‘victim sites’ such as Barts Hospital
Trust in central London. The report
sets out the NCSC’s response, as a
typically prompt and varied one to
such a serious attack on UK critical
national infrastructure (CNI) such as
hospitals:
l record numbers of IT people shared
ideas on a ‘collaborative and secure
space’;
l the NCSC managed the media
side, issuing a press release within 90
minutes of the alert on Friday, May 12
(the day it led the TV news);
l over the weekend, guidance on the
NCSC website was updated;
l as a sign of how cyber-crime is
taken ever more seriously by society
generally, Ciaran Martin, CEO of the
NCSC was interviewed on TV evening
news;
l CISP (Cyber Security Information
Sharing Partnership) members such
as banks and other big businesses
(besides charities and academia)
collaborated, on advice besides
debunking falsehoods and rumours;
and
l the NCSC led a UK Government
‘lessons learned’ review which pointed
to a need for more resilient NHS
computer networks, as featured in the
June and September 2017 issues of
Professional Security.
Crucial
Ciaran Martin said: “Cyber security is
crucial to our national security and to
our prosperity. We’re incredibly proud
of what we have achieved in our first
year at the National Cyber Security
Centre, bringing together some of
the best cyber security brains in the
country in a single place. But the
threat remains very real and growing
– further attacks will happen and there
is much more for us to do to make the
UK the safest place in the world to
live and do business online. We look
forward to working with our partners
Comment
Raj Samani, Chief Scientist at IT
security software firm McAfee, said
the NCSC review showed an escalation
in cyber attacks – and this should be
taken seriously. “Cyberattacks are
the future of crime. Criminals are
coming up with varied, sophisticated
attacks to weaponise data and systems
– and it takes inspired, innovative
cybersecurity professionals to
proactively find emerging threats and
beat criminals at their own game. It’s a
fast paced industry so ensuring the UK
retains its place as a key – and secure
– market for digital business requires
both close collaboration between law
enforcement and the cyber security
sector and an ongoing focus on cyber
at a national level. Just protecting data
at home and abroad in the year ahead
in pursuit of that vital goal.”
Active defence
The NCSC work as set out in the
report includes what it terms ‘active
cyber defence’ for example against
phishing websites, reducing the
average time that a phishing website
is online from 27 hours to one. Cyber
risks tackled include fake emails that
purport to be from UK Government
departments such as the taxman, with
the aim of doing fraud and identity
theft. The NCSC describes websites
left unused or not updated as an ‘open
goal’ for criminals; hence the centre’s
‘Web Check’ service for the public
sector, to scan for vulnerabilities. It
generates a ‘plain English’ report on
what needs fixing, and how to. UK
Government departments can notify
a private firm, Netcraft, if they find
themselves the victim of a phishing
campaign, or malicious emails
claiming to come from them; the firm
issues take-down notifications to the
hosts of those websites or emails.
The NCSC also does work for the
UK’s armed forces; has worked with
the Ministry of Defence and industry
on protecting the defence supply
chain from cyber threats; and briefed
companies in that supply chain; and
likewise worked with UK central
Government on an IT network for
those working at the Government
document security classification level
of ‘secret’. p
and correcting systems after an attack
is no longer sufficient. Businesses must
be prepared to proactively seek out
and detect any threats to keep cyber
criminals at bay and data secure.”
Misleading milestone
HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC)
has averted over a million visits to
deceptive websites, including those
which promote misleading and costly
helpline numbers, it announced last
month. HMRC’s Director for Customer
Services, Angela MacDonald, said:
“HMRC takes the abuse of its brand
very seriously. Attempts to dupe
customers in this way won’t be
tolerated and we will always act to
protect the public from malicious or
misleading websites.” p
54
NOVEMBER 2017 PROFESSIONAL SECURITY
www.professionalsecurity.co.uk
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