UK facing increased hostile activity in cyberspace, security official warns

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's cyber security chief warned on Tuesday of a rise in hostile activity in the country's cyberspace, with the number of incidents handled by officials rising by 16% in 2024 compared to a year ago.

"Hostile activity in UK cyberspace has increased in frequency, sophistication and intensity," the National Cyber Security Centre's Richard Horne will say in a speech later on Tuesday, according to a statement released by the government agency.

"Actors are increasingly using our technology dependence against us, seeking to cause maximum disruption and destruction."

The incident management team at the NCSC handled 430 incidents in 2024, compared to 371 the previous year, the agency said in the statement.

Of those, 347 involved some level of data exfiltration - the intentional, unauthorised, covert transfer of data from a computer or other device - while 20 involved ransomware, said the NCSC, which is part of Britain's GCHQ spy agency.

The team issued 542 bespoke notifications informing organisations of a cyber incident impacting them and providing advice on mitigation, more than double the 258 notifications issued last year.

In its annual review published alongside the statement, the NCSC said ransomware attacks posed "the most immediate and disruptive" threat to critical infrastructure like energy, water, transportation, health and telecommunications.

The review also warned of the potential of hackers to exploit AI to create more advanced cyber attacks.

"We believe the severity of the risk facing the UK is being widely underestimated," Horne is set to say in his speech.

"There is no room for complacency about the severity of state-led threats or the volume of the threat posed by cyber criminals."

(Reporting by Muvija M, Editing by Rosalba O'Brien)