Britain Today

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Due to the decades-old frog-boiling of the West by those who perceive the internet as nothing more than
another warfare setting and a fine way of promoting feebleness as a moral good, the mainstream media
have become so locked into assuming any negative information is worthy of a high spot to broadcast to
revive their poor audiences, that we now have this one from the Beeb.

One needn't concern oneself about the absurdity the article displays, no-no... as long as it's 'scary'.
Remember, even if your legs are blown off in a suicide attack or you're up next in the Rape Room,
the media will always advocate tolerance and to resort to retaliation would be crude. What's next,
scratch your mortgage agreements onto slate and pray the big-bad swarthy-looking man won't take
your daughter again?!

The BBC's adage: Walk softly and act like a Dormouse.

Cyber attack contingency plans should be put on paper, firms told

'People should plan for potential cyber-attacks by going back to pen and paper, according to the latest
advice. The government has written to chief executives across the country strongly recommending that
they should have physical copies of their plans at the ready as a precaution.

A recent spate of hacks has highlighted the chaos that can ensue when hackers take computer systems
down. The warning comes as the National Cyber-Security Centre (NCSC) reported an increase in nationally
significant attacks this year. Criminal hacks on Marks and Spencer, The Co-op and Jaguar Land Rover have
led to empty shelves and production lines being halted this year as the companies struggled without their
computer systems.

Organisations need to "have a plan for how they would continue to operate without their IT, (and rebuild that
IT at pace), were an attack to get through," said Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC. Firms are being
urged to look beyond cyber-security controls toward a strategy known as "resilience engineering", which focuses
on building systems that can anticipate, absorb, recover, and adapt, in the event of an attack.

Plans should be stored in paper form or offline, the agency suggests and include information about how teams
will communicate without work email and other analogue work arounds. These types of cyber attack contingency
plans are not new but it's notable that the UK's cyber authority is putting the advice prominently in its annual review.

Although the total number of hacks that the NCSC dealt with in the first nine months of this year was, at 429,
roughly the same as for a similar period last year, there was an increase in hacks with a bigger impact.
The number of "nationally significant" incidents represented nearly half, or 204, of all incidents. Last year only
89 were in that category.

A nationally significant incident covers cyber-attacks in the three highest categories in the NCSC and UK law
enforcement categorisation model, external:

Category 1: National cyber-emergency.
Category 2: Highly significant incident.
Category 3: Significant incident.
Category 4: Substantial incident.
Category 5: Moderate incident.
Category 6: Localised incident.

Amongst this year's incidents, 4% (18) were in the second highest category "highly significant".
This marks a 50% increase in such incidents, an increase for the third consecutive year.
The NCSC would not give details on which attacks, either public or undisclosed, fall into which category.

But, as a benchmark, it is understood that the wave of attacks on UK retailers in the spring, which affected
Marks and Spencer, The Co-op and Harrods, would be classed as a Significant incident. One of the most
serious attacks last year, on a blood testing provider, caused major problems for London hospitals. It resulted
in significant clinical disruption and directly contributed to at least one patient death.
The NCSC would not say which category this incident would fall into.

The vast majority of attacks are financially motivated with criminal gangs using ransomware or data extortion
to blackmail a victim into sending Bitcoins in ransom. Whilst most cyber-crime gangs are headquartered in
Russian or former Soviet countries, there has been a resurgence in teenage hacking gangs thought to be
based in English-speaking countries. So far this year seven teenagers have been arrested in the UK as part
of investigations into major cyber-attacks.

As well as the advice over heightened preparations and collaboration, the government is asking organisations
to make better use of the free tools and services offered by the NCSC, for example free cyber-insurance for
small businesses that have completed the popular Cyber-Essentials programme...'

Silly BBC: