In response to a surge in cyberattacks, London is urging businesses to develop printed “backup plans.” This advice comes as the UK has seen a 50% increase in major incidents reported over the past year.
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Critical and Frequent Cyberattacks
Over the past year, the number of “nationally significant” cyberattacks in the UK has doubled. The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has recorded 204 critical incidents in the last nine months, up from 89 in the same period the previous year. This significant increase is highlighted by disruptions to major companies such as Jaguar Land Rover and The Co-op.
These attacks do more than just slow down systems: they halt production lines, empty shelves, and weaken the country’s economic infrastructure. The majority of these targeted ransomware attacks are carried out from Russia or former USSR countries.
Returning to Paper to Survive without Computers
With the rising threat, the British government is pushing companies to rethink their priorities. The goal is to prepare for a complete IT system failure and organize operations without computers. The NCSC now recommends that continuity plans be printed, stored offline, and regularly tested.
This includes analog communication procedures, manual business processes, and teams trained to restart operations without digital tools. Essentially, it’s a temporary return to using pens and landline phones.
The Shift from Prevention to Resilience
Traditional cyber defense, which focuses on technical prevention, is proving its limits. The focus has now shifted to resilience
, a concept from systems engineering: absorb the impact, restart quickly, and adapt the organization.
This primarily involves crisis testing, comprehensive offline documentation, and increased collaboration among businesses, public sectors, and technical service providers. A bill under consideration in the British Parliament, the “Cyber Security and Resilience Bill,” also aims to require more companies to quickly report cyberattacks. This would particularly affect data hosts and IT service providers managing other companies’ systems.
What’s the Verdict?
This paradigm shift is not without merit. By advocating a return to paper, the NCSC acknowledges that an attack is now a plausible working assumption, not an exception. Resilience is becoming more important than the illusion of invulnerability. However, one question remains: how many businesses, especially small and medium enterprises, are ready to invest time and resources into developing “offline plans”? Time and money are scarce everywhere, and although a pen is inexpensive, changing operational methods can be a daunting challenge. In the meantime, it’s still recommended to install a VPN and antivirus software.