States systems remain unaffected by ransomware threat

17 May 2017

The government would like to reassure Islanders that all States of Jersey departments remain unaffected by the ‘WannaCry/Wannacrypt’ ransomware threat. This threat has affected more than 250,000 organisations across the world and has disrupted UK Government services.

The Information Services Department has been validating IT systems and is satisfied that, so far, the States of Jersey has not been infected by the WannaCry vulnerability. IT staff have been continuing to

• check that the patches applied are working and systems are running on the new release
• ensure that antivirus software is up to date and firewalls are set correctly
• check for vulnerabilities on the network
• monitor the network gateways for suspicious traffic

The States of Jersey has links with the UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which will allow greater collaboration in future as part of the Island’s Cyber Security Strategy.

We would advise businesses and individuals to ensure they are as protected as they can be in light of the current WannaCry threat, and other future vulnerabilities, by taking a minimum of three steps

1. Keep your organisation's security software patches up to date
2. Use proper anti-virus software services
3. Most importantly for ransomware, back up the data that matters to you, because you can't be held to ransom for data you hold somewhere else.

Home users and small businesses can take the following steps to protect themselves

1. Run Windows Update
2. Make sure your anti-virus product is up to date and run a scan – if you don’t have one, install one of the free trial versions from a reputable vendor
3. If you have not done so before, this is a good time to think about backing up important data – you can’t be held to ransom if you’ve got the data somewhere else.

These simple steps are also set out on the NCSC website.

NCSC: Protecting your organisation from ransomware