Planet IT live hack event at Milton Park highlights cybercrime risks

Around 55 business and IT professionals from 31 companies, gathered at the Milton Park’s Bee House for a live simulated hack event hosted by Planet IT, part of TalkTalk Business based at Milton Park, exploring the growing scale and impact of cyber threats facing UK organisations.

The event highlighted the increasing frequency and financial impact of cybercrime, with attendees hearing that a cyberattack now takes place every minute in the UK and every two seconds globally.

Adrian Sweeney, chief commercial officer at Planet IT, explained that last year, more than half of UK organisations reportedly suffered a cyberattack, while the cost to the UK economy has reached an estimated £27bn.

Despite the risks, fewer than half of businesses are understood to have a dedicated cyber security strategy in place.

Built around a fictional company scenario based loosely on a real cyberattack, the interactive session split attendees into technical and business-focused groups.

Through a series of video-led scenarios, participants were asked to respond to evolving stages of the attack, discussing and voting on decisions using the Slido platform before reviewing the consequences of each response.

The event reinforced that cybersecurity is not solely an IT issue, but a business-wide responsibility requiring vigilance, preparation and collaboration across every part of an organisation.

Key themes included the importance of:

• Remaining calm during a crisis
• Working collectively across teams
• Calling on external support, including crisis communications, legal advisers, insurers and specialist cyber expertise, when responding to an attack

Adrian said about the event: “Cybersecurity is often judged in theory, but real incidents happen under pressure. We see it far too often. Businesses think they know what they would do during a cyberattack, but when it actually happens, panic sets in. Poor decisions get made quickly, and those decisions compound the cost of the attack itself. That is why it is so important to test your response before you need it, from technical containment through to customer communication and leadership decisions.

“It was also fantastic to host this at Milton Park, the place Planet IT calls home. There is real strength in bringing local businesses together to share knowledge, challenge their thinking and learn from each other. As well as the large, established organisations you expect to find here, the Milton Park community is full of ambitious, growing organisations, and events like this help make that community more prepared, more connected and more resilient.”