Ethical Hacking News
UK takes historic step to crack down on ransomware payments, banning public sector organizations and critical national infrastructure from making payments to attackers. The move is part of a broader effort to bolster the country's cybersecurity posture in response to growing threats of cybercrime.
The UK government proposes to ban public sector organizations and critical national infrastructure from paying criminal operators behind ransomware attacks. The proposal aims to disrupt the business model of ransomware attackers and make it more difficult for them to extort payments from vulnerable organizations. The Cyber Resilience Bill will give regulators more extensive enforcement powers and help the administration react more quickly to emerging threats. Organizations that fail to comply with security requirements may face daily fines of £100,000 or 10% of turnover, whichever is greater.
The United Kingdom has taken a significant step towards protecting its public sector and critical national infrastructure from the scourge of ransomware attacks. In a move aimed at making these organizations less attractive targets for financially motivated attackers, the UK government has proposed to ban public sector organizations and critical national infrastructure from paying criminal operators behind ransomware attacks.
This bold initiative is part of the UK's ongoing efforts to bolster its cybersecurity posture in response to the growing threat of cybercrime. The proposal, which has received overwhelming support from respondents to a government consultation, aims to disrupt the business model of ransomware attackers and make it more difficult for them to extort payments from vulnerable organizations.
According to the context data provided, the ban on ransomware payments is part of the latest crackdown by the UK government on cybercrime. The Cyber Resilience Bill, which is expected to enter Parliament later this year, will give regulators more extensive enforcement powers and help the administration react more quickly to emerging threats. The bill also expands the types of organizations in scope, including datacenters and managed service providers (MSPs).
The proposed ban on ransomware payments is a significant departure from the current approach, which has allowed some organizations to pay ransoms to avoid disrupting critical services. However, this approach has been criticized for creating a culture of fear and encouraging attackers to target vulnerable organizations.
Under the new proposal, public sector organizations and critical national infrastructure will no longer be able to negotiate with criminal operators behind ransomware attacks. Instead, they will be required to implement specific security improvements to prevent future attacks. Failure to comply with these requirements could result in daily fines of £100,000 or 10% of turnover, whichever is greater.
The proposal has been welcomed by cybersecurity experts, who argue that it represents a significant shift towards a more proactive approach to addressing the threat of ransomware. "If the option is to recover quickly by paying, versus not being able to recover because you're banned from doing so, the temptation may be to pay and simply not report it," said Kev Breen, senior director of cyber threat intelligence at Immersive Labs.
However, some experts have raised concerns about the potential impact on organizations that rely on paying ransoms as a means of mitigating the damage from a cyberattack. "There are many moral considerations here," said Kev Breen. "While it's always easy to say 'never pay,' the reality is far murkier. Some organizations have paid ransom demands not to recover infrastructure, but to prevent the public release of large volumes of personally identifiable information (PII) – where the damage to individuals could be far greater than a service being offline."
The proposal has also been hailed as a significant step towards disrupting the business model of ransomware attackers. "These new measures help undermine the criminal ecosystem that is causing harm across our economy," said Jonathan Ellison, director of national resilience at the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC).
In addition to the ban on ransomware payments, the proposal includes mandatory reporting requirements for organizations that intend to pay ransoms. This will provide enforcement agencies with intelligence to catch the crews masterminding campaigns and disrupt their operations.
The UK government has also announced plans to enhance its cybersecurity posture in response to the growing threat of cybercrime. The Cyber Resilience Bill, which is expected to enter Parliament later this year, will give regulators more extensive enforcement powers and help the administration react more quickly to emerging threats.
In conclusion, the UK's proposed ban on ransomware payments represents a significant step towards cracking down on one of the most destructive forms of cybercrime. By making public sector organizations and critical national infrastructure less attractive targets for financially motivated attackers, the government hopes to disrupt the business model of ransomware attackers and make it more difficult for them to extort payments from vulnerable organizations.
Related Information:
https://www.ethicalhackingnews.com/articles/UK-Takes-Historic-Step-to-Crack-Down-on-Ransomware-Payments-A-New-Era-for-Cybersecurity-ehn.shtml
https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2025/07/22/uk_to_ban_ransomware_payments/
Published: Tue Jul 22 11:46:35 2025 by llama3.2 3B Q4_K_M
