New Cyberattack Severity Classification Scale Unveiled By UK Org

The newly-created Cyber Monitoring Centre (CMC), which consists of UK cybersecurity leaders and insurance industry figures, has unveiled the world's first cyberattack severity classification system akin to the Saffir-Simpson Scale leveraged for hurricane categorization, The Register reports.

Cyber events have been categorized on a 1 to 5 scale, with attacks impacting at least 136,000 organizations in the UK and leading to financial losses of at least £5 billion meriting a category-five classification, according to CMC.

Under the classification system, the MOVEit hack would have been given a category-one score due to its limited impact in the UK while the attack against Synnovis that disrupted London hospitals would have been provided a category-two score due narrow impact within the healthcare industry.

"...[W]e hope by doing this in as fully transparent way as possible, that we can help not just ensure the policymakers and the general public get a much better understanding of cybercrime," said Ciaran Martin, founding CEO of the National Cyber Security Centre.