UK MPs issue cybersecurity recommendations

In a report responding to last year’s TalkTalk hack, MP have recommended CEOs’ pay is linked to online safety.

Published in June 2016, the Culture, Media and Sport inquiry into the TalkTalk hack, has made a number of recommendations pertaining to cybersecurity.

Last October, the internet service provider TalkTalk, which has around 4 million customers, was hacked. The company initially labelled the attack as “significant”, but later understood that only 157,000 people’s details had been stolen.

Cybersecurity recommendations

The committee has recommended a series of “escalating fines, based on the lack of attention to threats and vulnerabilities which have led to previous breaches”, as well as suggesting that CEOs’ pay should be linked to effective cybersecurity.

Other recommendations include making it easier for consumers to get compensation if they are the victim of a hack, and that the government should conduct a public awareness campaign about online and telephone scams or phishing.

Committee chair Jesse Norman told Sky News: “Our report today I think is a giant wake up call for industry generally because what that showed (the TalkTalk hack) is that even very sophisticated companies in the telecoms area were not invulnerable to attacks.”

 

Edited from sources by Cecilia Rehn.

Sources:
Sky News
Parliament.uk

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