Improving Cyber Resilience

Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford Excerpts

Wednesday 21st May 2025 Lords Chamber

[Baroness Anderson of Stoke-on-Trent (Lab)]

My Lords, the threat of ransomware and ransoms are clearly appalling crimes undertaken by cybercriminals. The Home Office—and I can speak only for the public service and Government—has concluded a consultation on world-leading proposals to strike at the heart of the ransomware business model, cutting off criminals’ funding and protecting UK business by deterring threats.

The position of the Government is that public funds will not be used to pay ransom demands made by cybercriminals. This is, however, an important issue, which is why last year the National Crime Agency led a global collaboration to disrupt one of the most dangerous cybercrime networks in the world. In February, the UK sanctioned six Russian individuals for facilitating crippling ransomware attacks. This is at the frontier of the cyber threat, and from the Government’s perspective, we highly recommend that people do not pay ransoms; there is no guarantee that their data has not already been sold on.

[Baroness Blackwood of North Oxford (Con)]

My Lords, when Richard Horne spoke at the CYBERUK conference this month, he stated that Britain has suffered double the number of serious cyberattacks in recent months compared with the same period last year. Nevertheless, only 35,000 SMEs have been issued with Cyber Essentials certificates in the last year. Can the Minister say what steps are being taken to increase uptake? Without it, SMEs will be critically vulnerable.