New cyberattack severity classification scale unveiled by UK org

Newly created Cyber Monitoring Centre, which consists of UK cybersecurity leaders and insurance industry figures, has unveiled the world's first cyberattack severity classification system akin to the Saffir-Simpson Scale leveraged for hurricane categorization, The Register reports.

Cyber events have been categorized on a 1 to 5 scale, with attacks impacting at least 136,000 organizations in the UK and leading to financial losses of at least £5 billion meriting a category-five classification, according to CMC. Under the classification system, the MOVEit hack would have been given a category-one score due to its limited impact in the UK while the attack against Synnovis that disrupted London hospitals would have been provided a category-two score due narrow impact within the healthcare industry. "...[W]e hope by doing this in as fully transparent way as possible, that we can help not just ensure the policymakers and the general public get a much better understanding of cybercrime," said National Cyber Security Centre founding CEO Ciaran Martin, who leads CMC's technical committee.