Have plans on paper in case of cyber-attack, firms told

People should plan for potential cyber-attacks by going back to pen and paper, according to the latest advice.

The government has written to chief executives across the country strongly recommending that they should have physical copies of their plans at the ready as a precaution.

A recent spate of hacks has highlighted the chaos that can ensue when hackers take computer systems down.

The warning comes as the National Cyber-Security Centre (NCSC) reported an increase in nationally significant attacks this year.

Criminal hacks on Marks and Spencer, The Co-op and Jaguar Land Rover have led to empty shelves and production lines being halted this year as the companies struggled without their computer systems.

Organisations need to “have a plan for how they would continue to operate without their IT, (and rebuild that IT at pace), were an attack to get through,” said Richard Horne, chief executive of the NCSC.

Firms are being urged to look beyond cyber-security controls toward a strategy known as “resilience engineering”, which focuses on building systems that can anticipate, absorb, recover, and adapt, in the event of an attack.

Plans should be stored in paper form or offline, the agency suggests, and include information about how teams will communicate without work email and other analogue work arounds.

These types of cyber attack contingency plans are not new but it’s notable that the UK’s cyber authority is putting the advice prominently in its annual review.

Although the total number of hacks that the NCSC dealt with in the first nine months of this year was, at 429, roughly the same as for a similar period last year, there was an increase in hacks with a bigger impact.

The number of “nationally significant” incidents represented nearly half, or 204, of all incidents. Last year only 89 were in that category.

A nationally significant incident covers cyber-attacks in the three highest categories in the NCSC and UK law enforcement categorisation model:

• Category 1: National cyber-emergency.
• Category 2: Highly significant incident.
• Category 3: Significant incident.
• Category 4: Substantial incident.
• Category 5: Moderate incident.
• Category 6: Localised incident.

Amongst this year’s incidents, 4% (18) were in the second highest category “highly significant”.

This marks a 50% increase in such incidents, an increase for the third consecutive year.

The NCSC would not give details on which attacks, either public or undisclosed, fall into which category.

But, as a benchmark, it is understood that the wave of attacks on UK retailers in the spring, which affected Marks and Spencer, The Co-op and Harrods, would be classed as a Significant incident.

One of the most serious attacks last year, on a blood testing provider, caused major problems for London hospitals. It resulted in significant clinical disruption and directly contributed to at least one patient death.

The NCSC would not say which category this incident would fall into.

The vast majority of attacks are financially motivated with criminal gangs using ransomware or data extortion to blackmail a victim into sending Bitcoins in ransom.

Whilst most cyber-crime gangs are headquartered in Russian or former Soviet countries, there has been a resurgence in teenage hacking gangs thought to be based in English-speaking countries.

So far this year seven teenagers have been arrested in the UK as part of investigations into major cyber-attacks.

As well as the advice over heightened preparations and collaboration, the government is asking organisations to make better use of the free tools and services offered by the NCSC, for example free cyber-insurance for small businesses that have completed the popular Cyber-Essentials programme.

Paul Abbott, whose Northamptonshire transport firm KNP closed after hackers encrypted its operational systems and demanded money in 2023, says it’s no longer a case of “if” such incidents will happen, but when.

“We were throwing £120,000 a year at [cyber-security] with insurance and systems and third-party managed systems,” Mr Abbott told BBC Radio 5 Live on Tuesday.

He said he now focuses on security, education and contingency – key to which involves planning what is needed to keep a business running in the event of an attack or outage.

“The call for pen and paper might sound old-fashioned, but it’s practical,” said Graeme Stewart, head of public sector at cyber-security firm Check Point, noting digital systems can be rendered “useless” once targeted by hackers.

“You wouldn’t walk onto a building site without a helmet – yet companies still go online without basic protection,” he added.

“Cybersecurity needs to be treated with the same seriousness as health and safety: not optional, not an afterthought, but part of everyday working life.”