Recommendation 19

The National Crime Agency is locked in an uphill struggle against the ransomware threat, which is now so sophisticated that even the most highly-protected organisations expect to experience a ransomware attack. There is clear value in the Government’s resilience work, but it is vital that this is paired with further work to raise the costs for attackers, to make the UK a less attractive target. Based on the evidence we have seen, the NCA has insufficient resources and capabilities to match the scale of this challenge.