The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has urged British companies to “bolster their cyber security resilience” following malicious cyber incidents which took place in Ukraine.

The UK organisation said that there have been no current threats to the country identified so far but that the guidance would enable businesses to build resilience ahead of potential incidents.

The NCSC, which is investigating the recent reports of cyber incidents in Ukraine, claimed that the activity “fits with pattern of Russian behaviour previously observed”, including the NotPetya incident and cyber attacks against Georgia – which the government attributed responsibility to the Russian government.

The NCSC urged companies to follow actionable steps that reduce the risk of falling victim to an attack, including: patching systems; improving access controls and enabling multi-factor authentication; implementing an effective incident response plan; checking that backups and restore mechanisms are working; ensuring that online defences are working as expected, and; keeping up to date with the latest threat and mitigation information. 

The guidance is primarily aimed at larger companies.

“The NCSC is committed to raising awareness of evolving cyber threats and presenting actionable steps to mitigate them,” said Paul Chichester, from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). “While we are unaware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to events in Ukraine, we are monitoring the situation closely and it is vital that organisations follow the guidance to ensure they are resilient.

“Over several years, we have observed a pattern of malicious Russian behaviour in cyberspace. Last week’s incidents in Ukraine bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity we have observed before.”

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