Nuclear Waste Dump Faces Prosecution For Cyber Security Offences
The United Kingdom’s independent nuclear safety regulator announced on 28th March that it will be prosecuting the managing company of the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria. The charges include “alleged information technology security offenses during a four year period between 2019 and early 2023.” the Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) has said.
Sellafield is Europe’s largest nuclear facility, serving as a testing ground and waste dump since 1947. It houses a massive range of highly radioactive wastes, including 140 tonnes of plutonium, which is a key ingredient for nuclear weapons.
The ONR said recently “The ONR has notified Sellafield Ltd that it will be prosecuted under the Nuclear Industries Security Regulations 2003.”
“These charges relate to alleged information technology security offences during a four year period between 2019 and early 2023... There is no suggestion that public safety has been compromised as a result of these issues,” the ONR said.
Sellafield, which has more than 11,000 staff, was placed into a form of “special measures” for consistent failings on cybersecurity in 2022, according to sources at the ONR and the security services.
This site has the largest global store of plutonium and is a massive nuclear waste dump from weapons and atomic power generation.
Sellafield’s computer servers were deemed so insecure that the problem was nicknamed Voldemort after the Harry Potter villain, according to a government official familiar with the ONR investigation and IT failings at the site, because it was so sensitive and dangerous.
At the time, Sellafield said that “all of our systems and servers have multiple layers of protection”. “Critical networks that enable us to operate safely are isolated from our general IT network, meaning an attack on our IT system would not penetrate these,” it said.
Offic for Nuclear Regulation | The Guardian | The Record | Bit Defender | Telegraph | Mirror |
Image: Ideogram
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