Did North Korea hack Scots green watchdog?
First a crippling attack on NHS, now SEPA hit by ransomware
SCOTLAND’S environment quango has been hit by a massive ransom warecyber hack, crippling its communications.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) said it was responding to a ‘significant cyber attack affecting its contact centre’.
It comes only three years after an attack originating in North Korea crippled parts of the NHS and other organisations around the world.
Ransomware is malicious software which takes over computing systems, blocking access to data – or threatening to publish it unless a ransom is paid.
Sources said a ransom was demanded but would not disclose the amount or whether SEPA was prepared to pay it.
Hackers have targeted public bodies, businesses and individuals in a cyber crime wave that experts warn is likely to intensify over the next decade.
SEPA said that ‘whilst core regulatory, monitoring, flood forecasting and warning services continue, communication
‘Sophisticated criminality’
into and across the organisation is significantly impacted’. The Christmas Eve attack comes after police figures show rising fraud and online attacks.
Lockdown has seen some organisations lowering their cyber defences as staff moved to home working.
David Pirie, executive director at SEPA, said: ‘At one minute past midnight on Christmas Eve, SEPA systems were subject to a significant and ongoing cyber attack.
‘The attack is impacting our contact centre, internal systems, processes and internal communications.
‘We immediately enacted our robust business continuity arrangements, with our core regulatory, monitoring, flood forecasting and warning services adapting and continuing to operate.
‘Our emergency management team is working with Scottish Government, Police Scotland and the National Cyber Security Centre to respond to what appears to be complex and sophisticated criminality.’
Mr Pirie said that ‘whilst we continue to liaise closely with resilience partners, we’re asking for those who wish to contact us right now to do so through our social media channels’.
The cyber hack comes at a time when heavy rain, strong winds and f l ooding are expected for large parts of Scotland. The Met has issued a yellow weather warning for the west of Scotland.
The alert warns that persistent rainfall is likely to result in localised flooding of roads and properties and hazardous driving conditions.
At the time of the cyber attack on the NHS, desperate staff across the UK pleaded with patients to stay away from A&E, while ambulances were diverted away from hospitals struggling to cope with the crisis. It led to almost 7,000 appointments being cancelled across the UK.
A small piece of malicious code infected a computer that had not installed software updates, then sought out other computers.
Police Scotland figures in November showed fraud is now among the fastest growing crimes, increasing by more than 45 per cent in a year. The force was unable to comment on the SEPA attack.