Asked by: Carla Lockhart (Democratic Unionist Party - Upper Bann)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what steps the Government is taking to increase the resilience of telecommunications infrastructure in Northern Ireland, in the context of recent ransomware attacks in the last 12 months.
Answered by Chris Bryant - Minister of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
The Government is committed to ensuring the security and resilience of the UK's telecommunications infrastructure. The Telecommunications (Security) Act 2021 introduced a robust security framework throughout the United Kingdom and requires public telecoms providers to identify, reduce, and prepare for security and resilience risks, including ransomware attacks. Ofcom is responsible for monitoring and enforcing compliance with this framework. The Government keeps its telecoms security and resilience policies under constant review to ensure evolving risks to UK telecommunications networks are effectively mitigated.