GPSJ WINTER 2023 2024 LATEST - Flipbook - Page 8
GPSJ
IT & IT SECURITY
Public sector IT increasingly
coming under fire from menacing
foreign states
By Sascha Giese, Tech Evangelist at SolarWinds
Security agencies aren’t renowned for revealing sensitive information. But early last year, the
National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) released unknown details of the first response to a cyber
attack against the UK Government by another state.
It happened in June 2003, when
cyber experts were called to
investigate a possible breach
after a government employee
detected suspicious activity on
one of their workstations.
Analysis confirmed that malware —
designed to steal sensitive data and
evade antivirus products — had
been installed.
Two decades later, Paul
Chichester, Director of Operations at
8
the National Cyber Security Centre,
in a response to an incident
at the forefront of efforts to develop
used the incident to highlight how
affecting the UK Government,” he
tools and techniques to defend
the government has adapted to the
said.
against cyber threats and keep our
changing nature of such threats —
He went on: “It was also the first
not just from cyber criminals but
time that the UK and Europe started
rogue states as well.
to understand the potential online
“Twenty years ago, we were
risks we faced, and our response
respective nations safe online.”
Attacks on public sector never
far from the news
just crossing the threshold of
transformed how we investigate and
Fast forward 20 years and the
the cyber-attack arena, and this
defend against such attacks.
threat to government and public
incident marked the first time that
“The NCSC and our allies have
sector organisations remains. In
Government Communications
come such a long way since this
August 2023, it was reported that
Headquarters (GCHQ_ was involved
incident, and it is reassuring to be
St Helen’s Borough Council on
GOVERNMENT AND PUBLIC SECTOR JOURNAL WINTER 2023/2024