For 26 nations, India-UK organise virtual cybersecurity exercise

The UK government and the National Security Council Secretariat (NSCS) jointly conducted a virtual cyber security exercise for 26 countries on Tuesday.

The exercise is a part of the British Aerospace (BAE) System-facilitated International Counter Ransomware Initiative-Resilience Working Group, which is led by India.

According to the NSCS statement, the aim of organising this virtual cyber exercise on ransomware resilience is to simulate a large, wide-spread cyber security incident affecting organisations within a country.

The National Cyber Crisis Management Teams of CRI partner nations dealing with ransomware attacks on multiple electricity distribution companies are involved in the exercise.

These companies are responsible for the distribution of electricity to domestic customers and are the last links to the public supply. The exercise explores the complexity of decision-making around a response to ransomware on critical national infrastructure, the NSCS said.

NSCS added that this exercise has been designed to support the mission of the CRI and aims to allow participating CRI members to test their capability to respond to a major ransomware incident; demonstrate the benefit of sharing information and collaborating during a major incident; and provide opportunities for the CRI nations to share their approaches to countering ransomware.