Cyber Stories: UK charity the Salvation Army hit by ransomware attack

According to a Salvation Army spokesperson, criminals infected the Salvation Army in the UK with ransomware and syphoned the organisation's data. The Salvation Army refused to give any further information, such as the identity of the criminal attackers, or the volume and type of data accessed by them.

In any cybersecurity breach, the first few days and weeks after the attack are the most important, so this means your team needs to be equipped with knowledge on how to reduce and eliminate the risk of further attacks. It is imperative that those whose information may have been compromised are informed as soon as possible so they can be on guard against other attacks — such as phishing for even more information.

It has been mooted by infosec industry sources that the Conti and Pysa ransomware gangs could have had a role in the attacks. Both these ransomware gangs have been known to target ‘soft underbelly’ targets such as hospitals, schools and local government councils as they represent easy opportunities to make gains.

At Vambrace, we can help with every stage of cybersecurity, from identification, protection, detection, response and recovery. However, the Salvation Army incident demonstrates more than anything the importance of your team in the response to a cyber threat. That’s why we provide two tailored training courses for you and your company: so that your colleagues can become your best line of defence against cybercriminals.

Our Security Awareness programme is centred around providing your team with the basic skills needed to become competent in IT & computer security. For a more practical understanding, we also conduct Incident Response sessions to test your staff’s knowledge and your company’s systems in a real-life simulated situation. By conducting these situations during half-day and full-day workshops, we can assess your company’s ability to respond to live cyber threats, then give you a comprehensive report on your strengths and weaknesses so we can ameliorate any clear issues.

For more information about Vambrace’s training courses, or any other cybersecurity issues, get in touch.