"UK Councils and Hospitals Vulnerable to Cyber Hackers"

An investigation conducted by ITV News into cybersecurity at UK public services revealed a significant disparity in defense budgets, hundreds of website vulnerabilities, and staff email addresses and passwords at one council posted in full online.  The researchers found that one UK council spent only £32,000 yearly on cybersecurity.  By comparison, another council with a smaller population had an annual cybersecurity budget of £1m, over 30 times larger.  The investigation also revealed that one hospital had only put aside £10,000 yearly towards cybersecurity.  The researchers noted that the cyberattacks had caused real-life problems, including residents forced to leave their homes, canceled hospital operations, incorrect benefit payments, overcharged tax bills, house sales falling through, repairs to council houses not being carried out, inability to apply for council housing, and sensitive data leaked online.  Many researchers agreed that there is a lack of clarity and standards for public services regarding cybersecurity.  In October of last year, it was reported that UK councils had been hit by a staggering 33,645 data breaches caused by human error in the past five years.  

Infosecurity reports: "UK Councils and Hospitals Vulnerable to Cyber Hackers"