- HMRC detected and blocked more than 100,000 malicious emails
- These were sent between November 2021 and September 2024
- Critical infrastructure remains a main objective for cybercriminals
HMRC has blocked more than 105,000,000 malicious emails in the last three years, has affirmed a new investigation, which describes the climb of cyber threats against the United Kingdom government and critical infrastructure.
The news, obtained through a request for freedom of information (FOI) by the group of experts of the Parliament Street, shows an increase between November 2022 and October 2023 of 40,346,532, a significant increase of the almost 24,000,000 blocked in the same period of the previous year.
The critical infrastructure is demonstrating to be a really attractive objective for cybercriminals, especially given the urgency of the services they provide and the increase in geopolitical tensions. The consequences of the attacks against these suppliers can be serious, even threatening of life, and more than two fifths of critical infrastructure have suffered a cyber violation to date.
A change at the entrance door
According to the application, HMRC has changed its supplier of its ’email gateway’ that blocks and classifies emails, which means that you can no longer divide information into malware, phishing, spam or other categories.
The Government acknowledges that this is an urgent issue, with the new cyber security bill introduced to protect critical infrastructure when providing essential IT services, which covers more than 1,000 suppliers.
This occurs after the senior security officials labeled Britain “surprisingly vulnerable” to cyber attacks, indicating services such as NHS and National Power Grid, both using external suppliers that are not subject to the strict security regulations that public institutions must follow.
“These numbers show how relentless are cybercriminals when it comes to attacking government institutions,” says Andy Ward, SVP International in absolute security.
“Safety equipment must be able to isolate and close the systems committed immediately to prevent attacks from spreading. With cyber threats, they become more sophisticated, having adequate tools and defenses is more important than ever to protect the United Kingdom government departments.”
