New cyber laws too weak to halt hacking bloodbath

CYBER experts are warning that longawaited plans to tighten security would not have stopped any of the £3billion attacks on British firms in the past year.

- By Saskia Koopman

The bloodbath in 2025 alone saw Jaguar Land Rover out of action for five weeks, Marks & Spencer nursing a £300m black hole and Coop £106m down.

The string of ambushes, in which personal data was also stolen from Harrods customers, came after government spent four years consulting on cyber legislation. The resulting Cyber Security and Resilience Bill started working through Parliament two weeks ago.

But yesterday Emma Philpott, chief of cyber certification firm IASME, said: “All the breaches that we have seen recently wouldn’t have been impacted by this legislation. We need more stuff.”