The deployment of ransomware remains the greatest serious and organised cybercrime threat, the largest cybersecurity threat, and also poses a risk to the UK’s national security. Ransomware attacks can have a significant impact on victims due to financial, data, and service losses, which can lead to business closure, inaccessible public services, and compromised customer data. Threat actors are typically based in overseas jurisdictions where limited cooperation makes it challenging for UK law enforcement to disrupt their activities.

The National Crime Agency leads the UK's fight to cut serious and organised crime.

The National Crime Agency has infiltrated a significant DDoS-for-hire service which has been responsible for tens of thousands of attacks every week across the globe.

The disruption targeting digitalstress.su, a criminal marketplace offering DDos capabilities, was made in partnership with the Police Service of Northern Ireland.

It comes after the PSNI arrested one of the site’s suspected controllers earlier this month.