UK targeted in 656 cyber attacks in the past 12 months, NCSC reveals

NCSC head Ciaran Martin points the finger of blame for the wave of cyber attacks targeting the UK at Russia, China, North Korea and Iran

More than 600 cyber attacks targeted the UK over the last 12 months.

That's according to the latest annual report by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).

According to NCSC's annual review 2019, the centre dealt with 658 cyber attacks against the British entities between 1st September 2018 and 31st August 2019.

Since its founding in 2016, the centre has handled a total 1,800 cyber incidents, as per the latest report.

Last year, NCSC launched Operation Haulster that sought to find out which payment cards were being targeted by cyber crooks. The operation helped to automatically flag fraudulent intents against a million credit cards to banks. In most of the cases, an appropriate action was taken before happening of the crime, thereby saving tens of thousands of people from losing their money, according to the NCSC.

Some of the cyber incidents that have targeted the UK in past 12 months include a ransomware attack against the police, threat actors targeting universities to steal intellectual property, and a phishing campaign that attempted to cheat over 200,000 people using an airport refund email.

NCSC said the UK government was the top target for cyber attacks in the past one year, followed by academic institutions and technology firms. Managed service providers were fourth common target for hackers, followed by transport and health services.

According to Ciaran Martin, the CEO of NCSC, a major part of centre's work includes defending against hostile state actors, such as Russia, China, North Korea and Iran.

The centre has also continued with its Active Cyber Defence (ACD) strategy that aims to ensure that there are lesser number of cyber attacks across the world. The centre believes this strategy could eventually help in lessening the harm to British users from cyber attacks.

As part of the ACD strategy, the NCSC attempts to stop malicious websites from operating as quickly as possible. It does so by contacting the hosting service provider and asking them to remove the website from the internet.

During the past 12 months, 177,335 phishing URLs were successfully stopped by NCSC from operating. In 62 per cent of these cases, the website was taken down within 24 hours after being reported as phishing or malicious.

The NCSC was set up as part of a £1.9 billion cyber-security strategy. Today, it oversees the state of cyber security in the UK and also plays an important role in advising organisations on the best way to stay safe online.