Speaking at Googles Zeitgeist conference this week, which unlike their SEO conferences tends to look more at the matters of World events, the Chancellor of the Exchequer, George Osbourne spoke of the nations battle against online criminals and said that during 2010 the governments networks received over 200,000 malicious emails containing code that if executed could have lead to government computers being compromised by hackers.
Osbourne told the guests at the conference of an attempted cyberattack on his department,:
"At some point last year, a perfectly legitimate G20-related email was
sent to HM Treasury and some other international partners. Within
minutes it appeared that the email had been re-sent to the same
distribution list.
"In fact, in the second email the legitimate
attachment had been swapped for a file containing malicious code. To the
recipient it would have simply looked like the attachment had been sent
twice."
The department's systems were able to identify the attack and stopped it, he added.
He blamed the attempted attacks on "hostile intelligence agencies" and has now vowed to improve online security within the government by introducing a new £650m National Cyber Security Programme.
Author: Sagittarius-Digital
Source: www.sagittarius-digital.com
Date: 17/05/2011