The cyber malware attack on the 12th May effected thousands of private and public sector organisations across the world. The governments National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has produced some guidance and help for organisations to combat cyber attacks. 

Companies can undertake three simple steps which are also set out on the NCSC website and can be summarised as follows:

1. Keep your organisation’s security software patches up to date
2. Use proper antivirus software services
3. Most importantly for ransomware, back up the data that matters to you, because you can’t be held to ransom for data you hold somewhere else.

Find the guidance here.

Home users and small businesses can take the following steps to protect themselves:

1. Run Windows Update
2. Make sure your antivirus product is up to date and run a scan – if you don’t have one install one of the free trial versions from a reputable vendor
3. If you have not done so before, this is a good time to think about backing important data up – you can’t be held to ransom if you’ve got the data somewhere else.

Find the guidance here.

In the days ahead, the NCSC, working closely with the National Crime Agency in support of their criminal investigation, and with international partners in both other governments and the commercial sector, will continue their round-the-clock effort to get ahead of this threat.  The NCSC reassure the public that resources from the Government, law enforcement and public and private sector organisation are working together to manage further disruption from the current attack and to increase protection against any further attacks in the coming days. The country’s security and law enforcement agencies are working round the clock to protect the public. Private sector efforts have made a very significant contribution to mitigate the cyber attacks so far and to  prevent further disruption.

Existing NCSC guidance provides organisations with information about how to protect themselves from ransomware attacks.

Points of contact/interest:

• NCSC website and twitter
• NCA website and twitter
• Action Fraud website and twitter
• Humber Business Resilience forum and twitter

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