Today the Government have published their response to the public consultation on our proposed measures to combat ransomware. Ransomware is the most significant cyber-crime threat of our time. I would like to thank all who responded to the consultation, the Government value the feedback.
We have seen the devastating impact that ransomware has on our businesses and society, demonstrated through the recent spate of attacks on our retail sector and healthcare providers.
During the consultation, officials held several stakeholder engagement sessions and consulted across a range of industries. There were 273 responses from critical national infrastructure, industry, academia and individuals with an interest in cyber-security who wanted to have their say on the changes we proposed.
The three measures we consulted on are:
a targeted ban on ransomware payments for the public sector and critical national infrastructure—making the essential services the country relies on the most unattractive targets for ransomware criminals;
a ransomware payment prevention regime—to increase transparency of criminal demands, and provide an opportunity to give victims not covered by the ban guidance before they decide how to respond;
and a mandatory reporting regime for all ransomware incidents—bringing ransomware out of the shadows and affording law enforcement greater intelligence on criminal activity.
We received clear support from the public to continue to develop our measures, to harden our economy from these attacks and protect our critical and essential services. They will provide our operational partners with vital intelligence to expose, detect and disrupt these criminal networks. To defend the economy and our business, we need to break the ransomware business model.
We will continue listening to and engaging with organisations from all sectors and civil society, to help develop these proposals further and to ensure they are as robust, streamlined, and effective as possible.
A copy of the Government response will be placed in the Libraries of both Houses and made available on gov.uk.
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