The British Computer Society (BCS) has recently published the biggest data leaks of 2023.  The leaks cover worldwide cyber attacks, but the lessons learned apply to organisations of all types all around the world.  The data breaches include The Guardian Newspaper, LastPass password manager, Royal Mail, MOVEit, Microsoft, The UK Electoral Commission.

An article by Computing magazine has reported that controls that Microsoft rolled out to protect Windows 11 from hackers seeking to exploit security vulnerabilities in hardware and device drivers are inadequate, security researchesrs at VMware claimed last week.

We launched our Schools Best Practice area at the beginning of this term which includes specific guides and support for schools.  There is also a specific area for Trusts and the Central Team.  The Trusts Central Team section is a specific area for additional requirements and guidance for the central team of a trust and should be used in conjunction with the other tabs in the best practice area.  

Several countries have pledged never to pay cyber criminal ransoms and to collectively work toward disrupting their financial systems.  The members affirmed their joint commitment to building their collective resilience to ransomware.  They will share data on ransomware perpetrators and techniques and establish a blacklist of information about digital wallets used to facilitate ransomware payments.

Google have recently published some guidance to help IT admins meet the DfE digital and technology standards in schools and colleges.  The guidance takes all of the standards in the Meeting digital and technlogy standards in schools and colleges document and offers advice around the use of Google products in applying the standards.

The NSA and CISA Red and Blue teams recently shared the top ten cyber security misconfigurations.  The schools we have worked with that have suffered a cyber attack often find that there are configurations, upgrades or user access controls that were missed.  This advisory highlights all of those and more - these are not in-depth configurations, but often ones that are set up incorrectly and then not checked or updated as time goes by. Although the advisory is aimed at larger organisati

Recently the ICO reprimanded a company that suffered a ransomware attack.  The attack resulted in a data breach - learning lessons from real-life incidents is a valuable way to promote knowledge sharing and improve.

The UK Online Safety Bill became law on Thursday 26th October.  The UK Government says the Online Safety Act will protect people, particularly children, on the internet.  The Act should make social media companies keep the internet safe for children and give adults more choice over what they see online.  Ofcom will immediately begin work on tackling illegal content and protecting children's safety.

We previously reported on some schools that had sufferred ransomware attacks, namely Thomas Hardye in Dorset.  It has since been discovered the attack was by the hacker group that goes by the name "Rhysida".  
The attack methodology used was by exploiting a known vulnerability in PaperCut.  Other schools have reportedly suffered the same attack from the group.

As we have seen an increase in the number of cyber attacks on schools we wanted to highlight a white paper that has been produced by the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), part of GCHQ and the National Crime Agencey (NCA).  The UK is currently a high value target for cyber criminals, not just in terms of business but against the UK citizens as well.

We wanted to highlight an organisation called the National Cyber Resilience Centre Group which consists of nine regional centres in the UK that were set up to strenghten the reach of cyber resilience across the business community.

A coalitiion of police, government, large employers and organisations and academia are supporting the growth of the Cyber Resilience Centre Network.

The ICO has recently published new guidance about bulk email communications following a number of data breaches caused by the incorrect usage of CC and BCC (carbon copy and blind carbon copy). 

Emails sent to the wrong person or emails copied rather than blind copied to customers/parents are the most common data breaches seen and are often because someone is rushing or under pressure.