Why Cybersecurity in London lags behind

Lock on kewyboard

A powerful and historic cyber assault on a small country in Northern Europe set a new precedence for vulnerability in national digital operations. As a result, it sparked a global need to pull together and strengthen national and business cybersecurity.

Since then, many more similar attacks have been made on other countries, exemplifying the growing problem. In an era revealing more and more cyberattacks from countries boosting their cyber-warfare capabilities, stronger accommodations must be made, and at every level.

Unfortunately, nobody is 100% safe. And it seems that many countries, like the UK, are only becoming highly dependent on online technology for the day-to-day running of their businesses, government, and suppliers.

To help understand the importance of cybersecurity in your business this article provides an overview of why the UK is an easy target for hackers and cybercrime:

Cyber-warfare and its impact

It was way back in 2007 when a powerful international cyberattack struck Estonia.

This historical event became known as Web War 1. Subsequently, it heralded a new era in digital reactions to international relations. As a small country, you wouldn’t have thought Estonia would be of too much interest to a significant territory as Russia.

But you’d be wrong as it all boils down to who’s in charge.

It turns out that the more advances Estonia made towards the Western World, the more friction this caused with Russia. In fact, Vladimir Putin was unhappy that Estonia were pulling away from Russia.

The devastating cyberattack launched on Estonia was inevitably traced back to Russia and assumed to be a state-sponsored affair. Its impact was catastrophic. This attack paralysed the banks, which ground cash machines to a halt. Furthermore, government IT systems were shut down, and websites run by the Estonian media became frozen for weeks.

The Estonian defence minister of the time revealed that the attacks were all aimed at their commercial banks, telephone companies, media outlets and their name servers. Unfortunately, this all pointed to the real target, which was the essential electronic infrastructures of the country.

Protecting UK businesses with enhanced cybersecurity

To avoid any hit of such epic proportions happening to our national wellbeing, it’s a must that proper steps are taken to protect our infrastructure at every level.

No business should sit back and believe that cybercrime doesn’t apply to them. If your SME gets hacked, the nation might not be impacted, but your services, operations and profits certainly could.

The bigger picture news therefore creates a fair warning to the kind of catastrophes which can ensue. Consequently, leaving your business inadequately protected can lead to huge vulnerabilities, and not just for your data, but for your stakeholders, customers, and employees.

The nation’s capital has also been under regular threats of terrorism for quite some time. And now, as cyber-warfare grows, our digital domain begs for enhanced cybersecurity protection for the same.

But, as no international law currently exists to prosecute against the use of cyber-weapons, we’re still very much in an ‘every man for himself’ situation.

So, what should we do?

Firstly, we must ensure protection is applied from the ground up.

So much in our current life happens online. The government, the major utility suppliers and the provision of financial institutions are all hyperaware of the cyberthreats they face. Therefore, the protection of their data and systems is a high priority. Customer confidence is one thing, but having your business floored by an attack from another country—well, that’s unforgivable.

Furthermore, much of the country’s business operating in and around the capital, it could be conceived that an attack on London would be considerably common. With that in mind, strong cybersecurity in London is a must and should be undertaken by IT experts.

What needs to be done to prevent international cybercrime in the future?

International law needs to develop and grow with the changing times. The use and governance of these cyber-weapons need policing in the same way that prevention of any other type of war is.

Innovation in technology happens at a break-neck pace. Realistically, providing legislation to deliver adequate protection will always struggle to keep up. It’s dangerous territory, and the world needs binding global treaties to prevent this new genre of war from emerging.

Growing cyber-attacks are evident all over the world

Regular incidents of international hacking are appearing from every corner:

  • Russia has been blamed for several further attacks—one of the most significant events was on the Ukraine power system in 2015. Also, infamous allegations made against Russia detailed their involvement in the 2016 US elections.
  • Sony was hacked in 2014, this time suspected by North Korea. This was enacted in retaliation to the release of a film documenting the communist state.
  • In Dallas, hackers infiltrated the city’s defence system to set off tornado warning sirens in the night.
  • A New York hospital was brought to its knees after its management refused to pay a $30k ransom demand.

A survey announced that 44% of local US governments suffered daily or hourly attacks. In response, New York established a cyber command centre to develop cybersecurity tools to help residents protect themselves and their businesses.

Perhaps London should follow their example and do the same?

Protect yourself from cybercrime with robust cybersecurity services

There is an abundance of IT security companies in London to choose from. Here at totality services, we offer bespoke needs and provide cutting edge IT security services London firms need to feel safe and secure.

Here is a condensed list of our key cybersecurity services:

  • Network security
  • Central security management
  • Microsoft 365 solutions
  • Data backup
  • Anti-virus and anti-malware
  • Security operations centre
  • Mimecast solutions
  • Google Workspace solutions
  • Printing security
  • Hard disk encryption

We work hard to provide the best in business data protection and compliance in all our professional security solutions. So, if would like to learn more about our cybersecurity IT services, please get in touch today!