Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2023 to Question 2570 on British Library: Cybercrime, which services have already been restored; and what is the planned timetable for the remaining services to be restored.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The final costs of recovery from the recent cyber-attack on the British Library are not yet confirmed. As it has from the outset, the British Library remains in close and regular contact with the Department on the ongoing work to investigate and assess the impact of the attack and to recover services.
Despite the cyber attack, the British Library’s buildings have remained open and well-used throughout, and it has maintained some key services including reading room access for personal study and some limited collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. In the immediate aftermath essential services such as WiFi and event ticket sales were quickly re-established.
On 15 January, the British Library restored a searchable online version of its main catalogue, comprising records of printed books, journals, maps, music scores and rare books. This will enable a manual process of checking availability and ordering to the Reading Rooms. In addition, it will offer access to an increased range of special collection material such as manuscripts and archives. Taken together, these improvements mean that from this date the majority of physical books and special collections held at its St Pancras site will once again be available for use.
Further updates will be provided as the Library continues to recover from the attack.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, pursuant to the Answer of 27 November 2023 to Question 2570 on British Library: Cybercrime, what estimate has her Department made of the cost of restoring services following the cyber attack at the British Library.
Answered by Julia Lopez - Minister of State (Department for Science, Innovation and Technology)
The final costs of recovery from the recent cyber-attack on the British Library are not yet confirmed. As it has from the outset, the British Library remains in close and regular contact with the Department on the ongoing work to investigate and assess the impact of the attack and to recover services.
Despite the cyber attack, the British Library’s buildings have remained open and well-used throughout, and it has maintained some key services including reading room access for personal study and some limited collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. In the immediate aftermath essential services such as WiFi and event ticket sales were quickly re-established.
On 15 January, the British Library restored a searchable online version of its main catalogue, comprising records of printed books, journals, maps, music scores and rare books. This will enable a manual process of checking availability and ordering to the Reading Rooms. In addition, it will offer access to an increased range of special collection material such as manuscripts and archives. Taken together, these improvements mean that from this date the majority of physical books and special collections held at its St Pancras site will once again be available for use.
Further updates will be provided as the Library continues to recover from the attack.
Asked by: Julian Knight (Independent - Solihull)
Question to the Home Office:
To ask the Secretary of State for the Home Department, what steps he is taking to tackle cyber-related crime in Solihull constituency.
Answered by Tom Tugendhat - Minister of State (Home Office) (Security)
Tackling cyber crime is at the heart of the Government’s National Cyber Strategy 2022-25, which is supported by £2.6 billion of investment through the National Cyber Fund.
Key to delivery is ensuring that local policing has the resources needed to deal with the cyber threats we face. In 2023/24, the Home Office is receiving £18 million from the National Cyber Fund to provide a range of capabilities and resource to tackle and respond to cyber crime. This funding is supplemented by a further £16 million of Home Office funding through the Police Settlement Programme.
This funding continues to build law enforcement capabilities at the national, regional, and local levels to ensure they have the capacity and expertise to deal with the perpetrators and victims of cyber crime. We directly fund a specialist Cyber Crime Unit at West Midlands Police, which covers Solihull, and another, more specialist team, at the West Midlands Regional Organised Crime Unit (ROCU). This ROCU team is integral to our response to high-harm, high-impact crimes like cyber extortion.
This Regional Cyber Crime Unit for West Midlands (RCCUWM) also works with businesses and organisations based in Solihull, across the private and public sectors, and at community level. Under the Local Resilience Forum, RCCUWM work with Solihull Council, amongst others, to build stronger cyber security and resilience. A key part of RCCUWM’s work is to ensure the integrity of our Critical National Infrastructure providers, and they have a long-standing partnership with NHS Birmingham Solihull (BSOL) Integrated Care System and NHS England.
We have also rolled out Regional Cyber Resilience Centres in London and each of the nine policing regions, including the West Midlands. These are a collaboration between the police, public, private sector and academic partners to provide cyber security advice to Small and Medium Sized Enterprises so that they can protect themselves better in a digital age. Details of the Cyber Resilience Centre for the West Midlands can be found at Cyber Resilience | The Cyber Resilience Centre For The West Midlands (wmcrc.co.uk)
All vulnerable victims of fraud and cyber crime in Solihull receive contact and Protect advice from law enforcement, specifically aimed at helping them to protect themselves in future from revictimization.
The specialist RCCUWM Prevent Team also work to intervene if people are deemed at risk of becoming involved in cyber offending. RCCUWM deliver the National Cyber Choices programme and have delivered multiple initiatives across Solihull, including working with schools to help them identify those at risk. Solihull local police officers support these important safeguarding interventions.
Asked by: Chris Law (Scottish National Party - Dundee West)
Question to the Ministry of Defence:
To ask the Secretary of State for Defence, what assessment he has made of the impact of the cyber attack against Capita in March 2023 on the security of civil servants' pensions data.
Answered by Andrew Murrison - Parliamentary Under-Secretary (Ministry of Defence)
The Integrity and Security of the Civil Service pension scheme is a matter for the Cabinet Office as the lead Department for the scheme. Any assessment of the impact of the reported Capita data breach on the security of civil servant pension data is a matter for the Cabinet Office and should be directed to them.
Asked by: Gregory Campbell (Democratic Unionist Party - East Londonderry)
Question to the Cabinet Office:
To ask the Minister for the Cabinet Office, what risks to (a) employees and (b) the wider population were identified following cyber crimes against Government departments in the last 12 months.
Answered by John Glen - Paymaster General and Minister for the Cabinet Office
This Government is committed to protecting citizens and public services from the ever-evolving cyber threat.
As set out in the 2023 National Risk Register, cyber attacks on the UK’s transport, health and social care, and telecommunications systems were identified amongst the most serious risks currently facing the UK. In addition, in this year’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) Annual Review, data theft - either through ransomware or the exploitation of vulnerabilities in public-facing apps - and cyber-enabled fraud remain some of the most acute cyber threats facing UK businesses and citizens. For example, between September 2022 and August 2023, the NCSC received 297 reports of ransomware activity and 327 incidents involving the exfiltration of data.
The Government takes data protection very seriously and we understand that data breaches are a matter of great concern to those whose data may have been exposed in a cyber attack. It is the responsibility of organisations affected to meet their statutory obligations under the UK General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) regarding notifying the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and the individuals affected of certain personal data breaches.
It would not be appropriate to comment on specific cyber incidents for national security reasons. However, the Government has already taken significant steps to reduce the risks identified and to strengthen our cyber defences.
The Government Cyber Security Strategy 2022 sets out our plans to significantly harden the Government’s critical functions against cyber attack by 2025, with all organisations across the public sector being resilient to known vulnerabilities by 2030. Alongside this, the National Cyber Strategy 2022 sets out our approach to tackling cyber threats against the wider population, including by better detecting, disrupting and deterring malicious cyber actors and embedding good cyber security practices and protections at national, organisation and citizen level.
Asked by: Lord Freyberg (Crossbench - Excepted Hereditary)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask His Majesty's Government (1) what steps they will take, and (2) what resources they will deploy, to assist academics dependent on the British Library for their research and scholarly activities after the recent ransomware attack.
Answered by Lord Parkinson of Whitley Bay - Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
Staff at the British Library are working hard to provide researchers, as far as possible, with alternative means to access the material they need during this period of disruption. The Library’s physical sites remain open to the public and are offering a range of services, including access to the reading room for personal study, some limited ordering of items for manual collection, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and on-site retail. Reference services and curatorial staff are working with individual researchers and academics to support specific enquiries as far as possible including, where appropriate, by directing them to other sources of research material held by other libraries and knowledge institutions. Details of what the public can access are available via the British Library’s social media channels.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment she has made of the potential impact of the cyber-attack against the British Library at the end of October 2023 on the public’s access to learning and research materials.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The British Library is undertaking a forensic investigation of this incident, with the support of the National Cyber Security Centre and cybersecurity specialists, and has reported it to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This investigation will help to provide a full picture of what happened, and the extent of disruption caused. This will take time, during which the British Library is liaising closely with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and others to provide updates.
The British Library’s physical sites remain open to the public and are offering a range of services, including reading room access for personal study, some limited manual collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. Details of what the public can access are available via the British Library’s social media channels.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether the group or individual responsible for the recent cyber-attack against the British Library has been identified.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The attack has been claimed by a known cyber crime group, and we currently have no reason to doubt their claim.
Asked by: Lilian Greenwood (Labour - Nottingham South)
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, whether she has taken steps to help secure the restoration of the British Library’s services following the recent cyber-attack against it; and what estimate her Department has made of the date by which those services will be restored.
Answered by John Whittingdale
The British Library is undertaking a forensic investigation of this incident, with the support of the National Cyber Security Centre and cybersecurity specialists, and has reported it to the Information Commissioner’s Office. This investigation will help to provide a full picture of what happened, and the extent of disruption caused. This will take time, during which the British Library is liaising closely with the Department for Culture, Media & Sport and others to provide updates.
The British Library has taken targeted protective measures to ensure the integrity of its systems, including the quarantining of hardware, the resetting of passwords for all staff, and the installation of additional monitoring and detection software across its estate.
The British Library’s physical sites remain open to the public and are offering a range of services, including reading room access for personal study, some limited manual collection item ordering, exhibitions, learning events, business support, and onsite retail. Details of what the public can access are available via the British Library’s social media channels.
It is too soon to give an exact timetable but the British Library anticipates restoring many digital services in the next few weeks, although some disruption may persist for longer.
Asked by: Dan Jarvis (Labour - Barnsley Central)
Question to the Department for Science, Innovation & Technology:
To ask the Secretary of State for Science, Innovation and Technology, what recent assessment she has made with Cabinet colleagues on the potential vulnerability of SMEs to cyber-attacks.
Answered by George Freeman
The 2023 Cyber Security Breaches Survey shows 32% of small businesses and 31% of micro businesses identified having suffered a cyber breach or attack in the past 12 months. This is a decline on 2022, however we believe this may be due to smaller businesses deprioritising cyber security and being less likely to identify breaches and attacks, rather than a reduction in the threat.
Our strategy, working with other relevant Departments and Agencies, is therefore to make it as easy as possible for SMEs to be secure.