UK plans to ban public sector organizations from paying ransomware hackers

The U.K. Home Office has launched a consultation proposing a targeted ban on ransomware payments by public sector bodies (councils, schools, NHS trusts) and making it a criminal offense for critical infrastructure operators to pay ransoms, alongside mandatory reporting of incidents and measures to block payments to sanctioned entities; motivated by recent attacks like the Synnovis breach and NCSC’s handling of 430 incidents (13 nationally significant, largely Russia-affiliated gangs), the plan seeks to disrupt criminal finances, with related enforcement including action against a LockBit affiliate, and the consultation runs through April 2025 while the U.S. continues to discourage but not ban ransom payments.