On 24 December, Christmas Eve 2020, the regulatory body that works to protect Scotland’s environment suffered a serious cyber-attack, likely to be by serious and organised cybercrime groups. A crippling strain of ransomware prevented the Scottish Environment Protection Agency (SEPA) from accessing nearly all its systems and data, including access to the basics of its email system. The resulting incident caused an outage that left the organisation temporarily paralysed and having to find some temporary manual processes to carry on its vital regulatory and flooding work.
Ten months on from the attack, the agency – which courageously refused to pay the hackers’ ransom demand – has embarked on a programme of rebuilding its systems from the ground up. Alongside restoring critical services, it has gone through a period of reflection and audit process, to ensure that it can share the ‘lessons learned’ as widely as possible across Scotland.
This one-off webinar is an opportunity for stakeholders to understand the growing threat of corporate cybercrime and how to protect against it.
Join SEPA, the Scottish Business Resilience Centre and Police Scotland as they shine a light on the dark web – and how to prepare, protect and respond to the heightened threat of cybercrime.
AGENDA
10.30am - Introduction and opening remarks: Kim McAllister, Broadcaster & Chair.
10.35am - Welcome and purpose: Terry A’Hearn, Chief Executive, Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
10.45am - The Challenges of Cyber Security: David Ferbrache OBE, Chair, National Cyber Resilience Advisory Board
11.10am - SEPA Cyber-Attack, Learnings on Readiness, Resilience & Response: Terry A’Hearn, Chief Executive, Scottish Environment Protection Agency & Dr. David Pirie, Executive Director, Scottish Environment Protection Agency.
11.40am - Supporting Scotland’s Readiness, Resilience & Response: Jude McCorry, Chief Executive, Scottish Business Resilience Centre & DI Michael McCullagh, Cybercrime Investigations, Police Scotland.
12.00pm - Panel Q&A Session: Terry A’Hearn, Chief Executive, Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Dr. David Pirie, Executive Director, Scottish Environment Protection Agency; Jude McCorry, Chief Executive, Scottish Business Resilience Centre; DI Michael McCullagh, Cybercrime Investigations, Police Scotland & Paul Chapman, Head of Public Sector Cyber Resilience, The Scottish Government
ADDITIONAL INFO
When:
Wednesday, October 27, 2021 · 10:30 a.m.
London
Terry has over twenty years’ experience in the environment profession, having held senior roles in Melbourne with the Environment Protection Authority in the Australian state of Victoria, in London with the global consulting firm WSP and, most...
Dr David Pirie has over 25 years of experience with the Scottish Environment Protection Agency. As Executive Director he co-ordinates the teams that enable SEPA’s environmental protection, including IS. He is a Chartered Chemist and member of the...
Chief Executive, Scottish Business Resilience Centre
Jude McCorry is CEO of the Scottish Business Resilience Centre. She has over 20 years' experience in the Technology sector and started her career with Dell computers in Ireland, she joined SBRC in April 2020 from The Data Lab where she was...
Head of Public Sector Cyber Resilience, The Scottish Government
Paul has worked in the civil service for over 15 years, predominately working in the areas of critical infrastructure resilience, emergency planning, and finance with a particular focus on energy resilience. Paul joined the Scottish Government's...
David is the Managing Director of Beyond Blue and Global Head of Cyber Futures at KPMG.
Over his 35 years in security, he has played a leading role in developing the UK’s cyber security strategy, including as the Head of Cyber and Space for the...