Businesses are being invited to take part in wargame-style event simulating a ransomware attack, to help them identify potential gaps in their digital defences.
The exercise forms part of a number of sessions being held by iSanctuary at the Royal Yacht Hotel on the 16 and 17 June.
iSanctuary CEO and founder Jonathan Benton, a former detective superintendent with the Metropolitan Police – whose background includes time as a hostage negotiator – described the firm as a specialist due diligence and risk management company “that works, increasingly more now, in the crypto space”.
The company recently finished a large piece of work in Ukraine, involving Russian sanctions evasions.
In addition to tracking and tracing digital transactions and helping to recover assets, iSanctuary also prepares its clients for the possibility of a ransomware attack and teaches them how they should respond to one.
A ransomware incident usually involves an attacker preventing their target from accessing its own digital information before offering to return it – at a cost.
If a victim does not comply with the request, hackers sometimes threaten to delete the data, corrupt systems or release sensitive information online.
A major ransomware attack on M&S recently made national headlines and is expected to cost the supermarket chain in excess of £300m in lost profits.
Mr Benton explained: “We’re not a cyber-security company, but we partner with a very well established one that does the cyber-security side of it.
“We do very much the playbook of, how does a company or organisation prepare itself for a ransomware attack, which is obviously quite pertinent given what’s happened to M&S recently.”
Nobody can bury their head in the sand on this
iSanctuary ceo and founder Jonathan Benton
Next month’s event will be comprised of three sessions, covering crypto and digital asset security, data-driven compliance as well as a ransomware resilience exercise – a simulated attack.
It will be overseen by iSanctuary’s advisory board chair Lord Bernard Hogan-Howe, with External Relations Minister Ian Gorst also due to attend.
Mr Benton said: “We’re going to run a simulated exercise…which, hopefully, will allow them to walk away and go ‘right – these are potential gaps in our business, or this is what we need to think about’.
“It’s key businesses, infrastructure businesses – we’re reaching out to telecoms, energy, food – those are the sectors that people will go ‘on an island like Jersey this won’t happen to us’, but it could.”
But Mr Benton stressed that any businesses interested in attending were encouraged to contact iSanctuary via info@isanctuary.io.
He added: “We’re going to give them an opportunity to think about what it is like when this happens and what they maybe need to consider for their business – nobody can bury their head in the sand on this.”
If I was from a Russian organised-crime group backed by the state, I would attack somewhere like Jersey
iSanctuary ceo and founder Jonathan Benton
In a special interview with Express last year, Lieutenant General Sir Graeme Cameron Maxwell Lamb – a former Director of Special Forces – warned that Jersey shouldn’t rule itself out as a target for a Russian state-backed cyber attack, partially due to its “attractive” position as a western financial hub.
Mr Benton said: “Jersey moves more money than some nation states because of the size of its financial centre.
“If I was from a Russian organised-crime group backed by the state, I would attack somewhere like Jersey.”
Commenting on the potential implications of a major cyber incident, Mr Benton added: “If they shut down your energy, shut down your health service, shut down your ability to get people in and out of the island – attack the ports or airport – that’s major damage to Jersey’s economy.”
Overviews of the sessions taking place next month…
Ransomware:
Compliance tools:
Crypto fraud:
