Sensitive data is at risk of being compromised due to old computer systems in government departments and buildings. This includes personal details such as bank and national insurance numbers which have been assessed as vulnerable. 

This alert has been reiterated over the last few weeks by HM Revenue and Customs, and the announcement puts the UK at even greater risk to attacks from foreign authorities. With the growing number of cyber security attacks on government employees and journalists from Russian actors this year, concerns over a wider and more extensive attack grow. 

The information that is at risk of being released is commonly targeted by criminals, and tax expert Heather Self commented ‘there’s a massive market out there for data like this’. Yet despite this finding the money to upgrade is difficult, as she added it can be a ‘huge expenditure’. 

A report in March by the TaxPayers’ Alliance pressure group found that this was a potential issue that needed to be addressed with urgency. Amid growing pressure to fund several different services, many have been tabled for the time being. Chief executive of the group said: ‘This failure is exposing data to criminals and costing taxpayers billions of maintenance and incident management’. 

Yet even months ago, this has been exacerbated with the Public Account Committee finding that only 4.5% of the Civil Service are cyber experts. This comes at a time when funding to the service and government employees is expected to be cut. Despite this, in September the government said that they had a ‘comprehensive programme in place’ to rectify this. 

Potentially creating a pattern of cyber insecurity, since a report in March 2023 revealed that the Capita Computer systems were failing, leaving the military and NHS vulnerable to cyber attacks. These collectively have led to the government receiving criticism over failure to invest in new technology and staying up to date with hacking malware. 

UK public services have faced several cyber attacks this year, with two different police forces having information compromised. In August 2023, London Metropolitan Police had breaches to personal information through a supplier and in September, Manchester police force faced similar attacks. The growing number of hits to public services, as well as this new alert from HMRC have created greater concerns over safety in the cyber sphere with Liberal Democrats Treasury spokesperson saying: ‘The government’s mismanagement is shocking.’

In 2022, the progression of the war in Ukraine came with more advanced cyber warfare techniques appearingly from Russia. This has included infiltrating routers and wireless networks, as well as new malware to target specific phone manufacturers such as Android. The growing concerns over this, coupled with this new security alert has heightened fears of a new, and much harder attack to suppress. 

However the Government Cyber Security Strategy, which was set out in 2022 to address issues such as this, says they are committed to warding off attacks that could threaten public and private governmental data. Conservative MP Harriet Baldwin stated that ‘I am sure the committee will seek answers on this issue during our regular scrutiny sessions with HMRC’. 

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