Recent case studies of cyber attacks During 2021, the UK continued its work with global partners to detect and disrupt shared threats, the most consistent of these emanating from Russia and China. In addition to the direct cyber security threats posed by the Russian state, it became clear that many of the organised crime gangs launching ransomware attacks against Western targets were based in Russia. China remained a highly sophisticated actor in cyberspace with increasing ambition to project its influence beyond its borders and a proven interest in the UK’s commercial secrets. How China evolves in the next decade will probably be the single biggest driver of the UK’s future cyber security. While less sophisticated than Russia and China, Iran and North Korea continued to use digital intrusions to achieve their objectives, including through theft and sabotage. 14 Cyber criminals using ransomware to attack public services Ransomware became the most significant cyber threat facing the UK in 2021. Due to the likely impact of a successful attack on essential services or critical national infrastructure the NCSC assessed ransomware as potentially as harmful as statesponsored espionage.14 In October 2020, Hackney Council suffered a ransomware cyber attack which caused many months of disruption and cost millions of pounds to rectify. At a critical time when it was dealing with the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic, the council was locked out of important data and many services were disrupted, including council tax and benefit payments. Other local authorities have suffered similar attacks, as have a variety of organisations in the education sector. NCSC, Mitigating malware and ransomware attacks (2021) 26 National Cyber Strategy