The chancellor said the government had to “step up” to combat the threat posed by states like Russia.
Chancellor Rachel Reeves has told ITV News “hostile states like Russia” are behind some of the cyberattacks the UK has experienced in recent months.
Addressing the resilience of UK businesses to deal with increasing threats to cyber security, Reeves said both the government and businesses needed to “step up” in their efforts to combat the danger.
“We also need to deal with this at source,” said the chancellor.
“It’s coming from hostile states, states like Russia – and that’s why we are doing what we are doing.
“A number of these attacks originate in Russia by Russian-backed entities, and we are getting a grip of that.”
Recent months have seen several high-profile and costly cyberattacks affect a range of British businesses, including Marks and Spencer, Co-Op, Harrods, Jaguar Land Rover (JLR) and this weekend, several airports.
In April, M&S halted online orders after it reported being a victim of a cyberattack.
Just under a week later, the Co-op revealed it was also the victim of an attempted hack and that several of its services had been impacted. At the same time, luxury retailer Harrods announced it had been impacted too.
The attacks were estimated to be hugely damaging for both the brands’ images and their profits.
M&S said the business had lost a total of £300m as a result of the hack.
European airports are still dealing with delays after problems which arose late on Friday.
Airports in Berlin, Brussels and London were hit by disruptions to electronic systems that impacted the check-in process.
Speaking on Monday, the European Union’s cyber security agency Enisa confirmed the disruption was caused by a “third-party” ransomware cyber attack, but gave no further details.
In a statement on Monday morning, Heathrow said: “Work continues to resolve and recover from an outage of a Collins Aerospace airline system that impacted check-in.
“We apologise to those who have faced delays, but by working together with airlines, the vast majority of flights have continued to operate.”
Both Downing Street and the chancellor said the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre was involved in the response to the attack.
“We have cyber experts working with Collins Aerospace and affected UK airports to fully understand the impacts and we’ll continue to work with them to address the ongoing issues,” said the prime minister’s official spokesman.
Reeves said increased sanctions and pressure on Russia were part of the government’s efforts to combat foreign-born cyberattacks.
She told ITV News: “That is why we are increasing the pressure on Russia, and that’s why when President Trump was here last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer spoke to him about what more we can do to ensure that Russia doesn’t disrupt our economies as well as cause the untold devastation it’s doing at the moment in Ukraine.”
British manufacturer JLR has had to pause production after suffering an attack which appears to be from the same group that targeted M&S.
JLR’s production pause has been extended until next Wednesday as the carmaker’s efforts to recover from a crippling cyber attack continue.
The company has told staff, suppliers and partners that the factory shutdown will continue until at least September 24, with suppliers laying off workers to offset the financial impact.
JLR could face a £120 million hit to its finances, a professor at Birmingham Business School has said.
JLR has already told the government some of its suppliers will need financial support from the taxpayer in order to ride out the shutdown – something the chancellor would not confirm, saying only that the government was already “helping JLR in a number of ways,” and would continue to be involved in discussions with both JLR and their wider supply chain.
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