Ministers ‘stick heads in the sand over hacking threat’

THE Home Office has been accused of burying its head in the sand over the threat posed by criminal hacking gangs to Britain’s national security.

Ministers were relying on an “ostrich strategy” and ignoring the threat, Dame Margaret Beckett, the Labour MP and chair of Parliament’s influential Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy, claimed.

Her comments follow the Government’s published response to a scathing report by the Committee, which accused the Home Office of having “relentlessly deprioritised” efforts to tackle criminal ransomware hacking, instead focusing on immigration.

It recommended the official brief of tackling cyber extortion be handed instead to the Cabinet Office.

MPS have been particularly concerned about ransomware, a type of computer virus that locks down a company’s systems while stealing its data. Hackers then demand a payment in cryptocurrency for the return of the information.

In its response to the Committee’s report, the Government said “ransomware is a key security priority” for the Home Office and added there were “no plans” to remove the department from the brief. It also rejected proposals for a new cyber regulator.

Dame Margaret, the former Labour foreign secretary, called the UK “exposed and unprepared” for future ransomware attacks.

She added: “If the Government insists on operating the ostrich strategy for national cyber-security – based on legislation made before the internet arrived, centred on a Department that seems to have difficulty mustering much interest in the issue, and in stark contrast to the cyber-attackers who are so fantastically well co-ordinated and resourced – where is the pro-active national security response to protect the UK supposed to come from?”