England Targeted Victim of Cyber Attacks
British Parliament Targeted in “Determined” Cyber Attack
The British parliament was the recent victim of a “sustained and determined” cyber attack. The attack was targeting weak email passwords. The parliament was able to isolate the infection and took precautionary measures to mitigate the spread. They decided by temporarily disabling remote access, the cyber attack’s impact would be minimized. By doing so, some parliament members were temporarily unable to access their data.
Liam Fox, minister of international trade, reported to the New York Times,
“We’ve seen reports in the last few days of even cabinet ministers’ passwords being for sale online. We know that our public services are attacked so it’s not at all surprising that there should be an attempt to hack into parliament emails.”
UK Prisons Hit with Ransomware
WannaCry ransomware has recently hit UK prisons, impacting approximately 1,200 computers. A National Crime Agency spokeswoman reported to The Sun,
“The NCA assessed quickly this was not a new attack but a result of the previous WannaCry ransomware attack. There has been no operational impact to the Prison Service and the incident is under control.”
It should also be noted; public safety was never at risk. Although some prison records were not accessible, the prison system was able to maintain functionality by relying on paper records.
The ransom demand is not being disclosed.
To see a full list of ransomware attacks that have taken place, you can click here.
