The agency has suspended some services while an investigation takes place.
UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has disclosed a ransomware attack that has disrupted services and may have led to data theft. The cyberattack, made public last week, has impacted two of the group’s services: a portal used by the Brussels-based UK Research Office (UKRO) and an extranet, known as the BBSRC extranet, which is utilized by UKRI councils. Launched in 2018, UKRI is a public body supported by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS). Nine councils come together under the brand to manage research grants and to support innovative businesses and opportunities in the United Kingdom. UKRI said that the IT incident has resulted in „data being encrypted by a third-party,“ which implies that ransomware at fault. Ransomware is a type of malware that is now often a culprit in attacks against the enterprise. Once ransomware has landed on a compromised system, it will usually encrypt data and files and may also spread throughout a network to take out backups and other resources.
