Ukraine Situation Driving UK to Bolster Cyber Resilience

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2 February, 2022

If the guidance fills you with fear, it probably means you’re missing an OT Cyber Strategy

As we continue to watch the biggest global military powers flex their muscles over Ukraine, it may not, at first sight, be obvious to see the relevance of this to the current condition of your companies’ cyber defences. However, advice recently issued by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is urging UK organisations to heighten their vigilance, as an increase in malicious cyber incidents in and around Ukraine is expected to spread West, should the situation escalate.

As part of GCHQ, the NCSC have been investigating the incidents in Ukraine, which are similar in nature to a pattern of Russian behaviour seen before in situations such as the destructive NotPetya attack in 2017 and cyber attacks against Georgia.

Should military forces end up engaging within Ukraine, the war will undoubtedly spill out well beyond its borders, and it will be ‘game on’ for a fresh round of international industrial cyber attacks.

DTG Cyber Security Consultant, Tim Gowling, said:

“Military superpowers are well aware of the disruption and distraction that cyber attacks cause, especially if targeted at a country’s key services, such as power and communications.

“But in times of conflict, we must also be increasingly aware of the opportunist, as in the criminal who takes advantage of such confusion, when everyone is looking in one direction, to mount a surprise, spontaneous attack from a completely different angle.”

The NCSC guidance encourages organisations to action the follow steps to reduce the risk of falling victim to an attack:

patching systems; 
improving access controls and enabling multi-factor authentication; 
implementing an effective incident response plan; 
checking that backups and restore mechanisms are working; 
ensuring that online defences are working as expected, and; 
keeping up to date with the latest threat and mitigation information.

Tim continued:

“If the NCSC guidance fills you with fear of an attack on your Operational Technology (OT) systems, you probably don’t have an OT Cyber Security Strategy. The resilience and readiness of your OT cyber defences are much more effectively managed with an overriding approach.”

How can DTG help further?

DTG recently launched a revolutionary Industrial Cyber Assessment tool (CAsT), which identifies security weaknesses in Industrial (OT) systems and offers solutions to increase an organisations resilience to emerging cyber threats.

DTG can also provide bespoke Industrial (OT) Cyber Security training for staff, available in various formats including traditional face to face, online live webinar or on demand e-Learning modules.

Our combined approach offering OT Cyber Training in conjunction with the CAsT application is a game changer for process industries looking to improve their OT cybersecurity in critical infrastructure.

For more information, contact us at [email protected] or visit our website www.digtechgroup.com.

Read our previous Cyber related blogs!