100 hacking organizations aimed at sabotaging the British economy and stealing government secrets

According to the Times report on the 24th of this month, the GCHQ is tracking 100 hacking groups that try to steal government secrets and undermine the British economy.

Ciaran Martin, head of the National Network Security Center (NCSC) affiliated with GCHQ, warned that some of the most aggressive hacking organizations are being funded by the governments of Russia, China, North Korea and Iran, which often have more than 1,000 members.

Martin said in an interview that the country’s infrastructure and financial systems are under threat and that hackers are stealing information and spreading rumors.

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He said: “The 100 hacker organizations differ in their size and composition, some of which may be directly subordinate units of some national governments and small criminal groups that have been active outside the legal framework.”

According to the NCSC, the United Kingdom suffered about 750 cyber attacks last year. Including the WannaCry ransomware attack on the National Health Service (NHS) by North Korea’s hacking group in May.

A month later, Iranian hacker groups launched a continuous cyberattack on the parliamentary e-mail system in an attempt to crack the weak passwords used by parliamentarians. About 9,000 email accounts have been affected, including the email account of Theresa Mary May, the prime minister of the United Kingdom.

Last month, a Russian hacker group was accused of hacking a technology company Uber in October 2016, stolen about 57 million of its account data, and the United Kingdom was also affected.

Martin explained that in today’s society, all the major national security threats that have historically worried the United Kingdom, including those aimed at the national military capabilities, have entered the network level. This is a drastic change.

Paul Chichester, director of operations at NCSC, said: “We think these hackers have caused damage to the UK and will have even bigger and more serious damages in the future.”

Reference: thetimes