With cybercrime rates doubling since 2019, and ransomware tripling since 2020, the UK government is seeking to bolster the nation’s cyber defences, publishing the National Cyber Strategy 2022 and enhancing the four-year-old Network and Information Systems Regulations (‘NIS Regulations’). BCL’s Julian Hayes and Andrew Watson discuss the NIS regulations and look into the challenges for the reforms of the NIS regulations in the face of increased online threats.

With more than one third of the planet’s population currently under some form of COVID-19 related restriction, the wider impact of ‘lockdown’ is becoming apparent. In the UK alone, the wider human cost of this necessary measure has been staggering: two million routine NHS operations cancelled; close to one million applications for universal credit benefit in the final two weeks of March; and calls to a national domestic abuse helpline 49% above average. The global economic picture is equally bleak. The IMF calculates the world economy will shrink by 7% in 2020, with trade levels sinking dramatically and national borrowing set to rise to levels not seen in peacetime. In the face of such dire prospects, for a relaxation of lockdown have grown increasingly vocal. But with a vaccine still 12-18 months off, governments around the world are weighing the apparent trade-off between easing restrictions and maintaining public health.