Businesses Face Fines If Cyberattack Causes ‘Essential’ Service Outage

‘Essential’ infrastructure providers, such as those in utilities, health, transport and communications, could be fined as much as £17 million or four percent of their global turnover, if inadequate security policies lead to an interruption in service.

The measures are part of a Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) consultation on how to implement the Network and Information Systems (NIS) directive from next year and are separate to the proposed Digital Protection Bill, which covers data loss, announced yesterday.

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) said the fines would be a last resort and would not apply to those who had taken every conceivable measure yet still suffered a cyberattack.

Cybersecurity fines

It said businesses should have policies and technologies in place to minimise risk, prevent attacks and failures, detect and monitor threats, and to educate staff. It also said organisations should report incidents as soon as possible and have appropriate recovery systems in place.

The same prinicples must be applied to other threats to IT systems such as power outages, hardware failures and environmental hazards.

“We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to live and be online, with our essential services and infrastructure prepared for the increasing risk of cyber attack and more resilient against other threats such as power failures and environmental hazards,” said Minister for Digital Matt Hancock.

Loading ...

“The NIS Directive is an important part of this work and I encourage all public and private organisations in those sectors to take part in this consultation so together we can achieve this aim.”

The National Cybersecurty Centre (NCSC) has welcomed the development, which is part of the government’s £1.9 billion National Cybersecurity Strategy.

“We welcome this consultation and agree that many organisations need to do more to increase their cyber security,” said NCSC CEO Ciaran Martin.

“The NCSC is committed to making the UK the safest place in the world to live and do business online, but we can’t do this alone. Everyone has a part to play and that’s why we since our launch we have been offering organisations expert advice on our website and the Government’s Cyber Essentials Scheme.”

Quiz: What do you know about cyber security in 2017?

Steve McCaskill

Steve McCaskill is editor of TechWeekEurope and ChannelBiz. He joined as a reporter in 2011 and covers all areas of IT, with a particular interest in telecommunications, mobile and networking, along with sports technology.

Recent Posts

SoftBank Promises To Invest $100bn In US

Japanese tech investment firm SoftBank promises to invest $100bn during Trump's second term to create…

13 hours ago

Synopsys, SiMa.ai To Collaborate On AI Car Chips

Synopsys to work with start-up SiMa.ai on joint offering to help accelerate development of AI…

14 hours ago

AI Start-Up Basis Raises $34m For Accountancy Agent

Start-up Basis raises $34m in Series A funding round for AI-powered accountancy agent to make…

14 hours ago

Databricks Raises $10bn In Huge AI Funding Round

Data analytics and AI start-up Databricks completes huge $10bn round from major venture capitalists as…

15 hours ago

Congo Files Complaints Against Apple Over Conflict Minerals

Congo files legal complaints against Apple in France, Belgium alleging company 'complicit' in laundering conflict…

15 hours ago