Government Proposes Huge Fines to Protect Against Cyber Threats

The Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport has launched a proposal to ensure organisations strengthen their IT infrastructure.

Organisations who fail to implement effective cyber security measures could be fined as much as £17 million or 4% of global turnover.

The Network and Information Systems (NIS) Directive which will be implemented from May 2018, is designed to make Britain’s essential networks and infrastructure as secure as possible and resilient against the risk of future cyber attacks.
 
Minister for Digital Matt Hancock said:
 

“We want the UK to be the safest place in the world to live and be online, with our essential services and infrastructure prepared for the increasing risk of cyber attack and more resilient against other threats such as power failures and environmental hazards.”
 
“The NIS Directive is an important part of this work and I encourage all public and private organisations in those sectors to take part in this consultation so together we can achieve this aim.”

 
The main targets for the directive will be essential services such as water, energy, transport and health firms. When these organisations have done their best to mitigate the potential risks but still suffer an attack, they would not be subjected to the fines.
 
This proposal from the government is separate from the General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR) which comes into force next year and is intended to protect data rather than services. With the growing threat from cyber attacks, the authorities are trying to ensure our data and essential services are secure.
 
Please contact Vantage IT for assistance with securing your IT infrastructure against the increasing risk of cyber-attacks.