A new rating system in the UK will classify the severity of cyber attacks on a scale of one to five, with the aim of giving businesses and policymakers more precise insights on the impact of cyber threats. The Cyber ​​Monitoring Center, an independent non -profit organization of experts, will judge incidents in real time and publish results for free.

The system is designed to be easily understandable, similar to the Saffir-Simpson hurricane scale, which categorizes hurricanes based on sustained wind speed. A score of one on the CMC scale is the least serious incidents, while a five indicates the most serious cyber attacks. Only events that affect multiple organizations and result in financial losses of more than £ 100m will get a rating.

The UK has experienced a boom in high-profile-hacking opportunities over the past year, including Ransomware incidents that are on the British librarysupermarkets of Sainsbury’s and Morrisons, and Pathology enterprise synnoviswhich disrupted the NHS operations. In December, the head of the UK’s National Cyber ​​Security Center warned that the country’s cyber risks were “widely underestimated”.

See: 99% of British businesses have faced cyber attacks over the past year

The CMC will collect data from sources such as the survey of the Chamber of Commerce, technical indicators and incident reports to assess the severity of an attack. The Technical Committee of the Organization – which consists of the former CEO of the National Cyber ​​Security Center, a former director -general of technology at GCHQ, and a professor of cyber security at the University of Oxford – will Review findings and assign a classification.

Results and corresponding reports will be freely available to “increase the understanding of the impact of cyber events and improve cyber mitigation and response plans.”

“The risk of major cyber events is now greater than at any time in the past, as British organizations are increasingly dependent on technology,” the CEO of the CMC, Will Mayes, said in a press release. “The CMC has the potential to help businesses and individuals better understand the implications of cyber events, reduce their impact on people’s lives, and improve cyber -feathering and reaction plans.”

British businesses should not only rely on a reactive system, says critics say critics

While the rating system provides valuable insights, some cyber security experts argue that businesses should not rely on it as their primary defense. Instead, they emphasize the importance of proactive safety measures.

“A fantastic response to the incident is well managed, it is well trained, it is well tested, and it has experience of the actual incidents under its belt,” said Benedict Peet, Information and Cyber ​​Security Risk Manager at Standard Chartered Bank. ” An email to TechRepublic. “Just a general response to the incident is where there is a framework in place, there is no testing, there is no planning, there is no experience.”

Haris Pylarinos, CEO and founder of the Security Training Platform Hack the Box, told TechRepublic in ‘Ne -mail:’ The UK’s launch of the Cyber ​​Monitoring Center is a step forward, but it focuses on the aftermath rather If the cause. Companies must take the opportunity to learn from realistic and dynamic crisiscenarios to stress their reactions to incidents before an incident. “