Many Cyber Professionals Not Confident UK Government can Protect Itself From Cyberattacks

News broke over last weekend that Parliament had been hit by a cyber attack, compromising the email accounts of nearly 100 MPs.

With this and the below survey results in mind, Tim Erlin, VP at Tripwire, said: “With the highly publicised investigations and speculations into election hacking across the world, it seems only logical that people will start to wonder about their own government’s cyber resiliency.

"The recent WannaCry outbreak in the U.K. has shown us what happens when government entities and national infrastructures are not protected from today’s cyberthreats.”

The news comes just as Tripwire released the results of a survey of 350 information security professionals that found 69 percent are not confident in the ability of the U.K. government to protect itself from cyberattacks in 2017.

Erlin added: “What the results of this survey show is that seasoned cybersecurity professionals are not confident that the U.K. government is protected from hackers. They also value the relationship that the U.K. has with friends and colleagues in the EU-funded agencies. The importance of an EU-wide coordinated effort to combat cyber risk should not be forgotten during withdrawal negotiations, as these efforts are clearly valued by the U.K.’s cybersecurity community.”