The UK government is scanning all of the country’s internet connections
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Britain’s National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) has confirmed that it is scanning all of the country’s internet-connected servers for potential vulnerabilities to assess where the country lies in relation to its cybersecurity credentials.
The NCSC uses a cloud-based system to run the scan tools, which will come from the domain scanner.scanning.service.ncsc.gov.uk. It will run scans that will “slowly increase” [in] complexity”, similar to what is often done by cybersecurity companies.
The agency’s technical director, Dr. Ian Levy, explained the importance of reliable data to make informed decisions about cybersecurity. He referred to the Microsoft Exchange vulnerability that went public in March 2021, and the information the NCSC beamed out of the incident, as part of the justification for conducting nationwide scans. to steer over different vectors in a timely manner requires a dedicated capacity.”
Sensitivity and transparency
The NCSC says it collects only the bare minimum of user data to check for vulnerabilities, including full web address data, as well as “the time and date of the request and the IP addresses of the source and destination endpoints.”
It is also promising that accidentally collected personal data will be deleted and may not be included in future scans. “We’re not trying to find vulnerabilities in the UK for some other nefarious purpose,” said Dr. levy.
The NCSC also claims to be as transparent as possible with its processes. It is intended to “publicly explain the purpose and scope of the scanning system”, and to monitor its activity so that any reports of misconduct resulting from the scans can be dealt with effectively.
People can also choose not to scan servers they own by sending an email to scanning@ncsc.gov.uk with a list of IP addresses they want to exclude.