Businesses and organisations should consider the potential increased risk of cyber
activity over the Coronation Weekend, and assure the resilience of infrastructure.
The Coronation of His Majesty The King and Her Majesty The Queen Consort is due to take place this coming weekend (May 6th to May 8th) on what is being collectively named, Coronation Weekend.
Due to the high-profile nature of the event and those in attendance, there will likely be significantly increased attraction for physical and cyber threat actors who wish to disrupt, embarrass, or disable the events.
Various events have been scheduled to take place over Coronation Weekend across the country, with the main events being the Coronation Ceremony overseen by the Metropolitan Police, and the Coronation Concert overseen by Thames Valley Police.
However, festivities will be taking place across the nation and all organisations should expect an increase in cyber activity surrounding these events.
National events present opportunities for threat actors to target individuals and businesses. Organisations should therefore be prepared for scenarios such as Coronation related phishing campaigns and distributed denial of service attacks.
The scale of the weekend’s events is also attractive to groups looking to use it as a platform to distribute their message. Because of this, organisations should be prepared for scenarios such as defacement of public facing sites.
Holiday periods and large-scale events like the Coronation Weekend are a prime time for criminals to take advantage of. During these periods, organisations will typically close and will be running with a heavily reduced staff count which can make organisations vulnerable.
So it's worth having a think about a few fundamentals you should have in place if your business is closing for the extra bank holiday this weekend.
Last year, we produced a holiday/event cyber checklist, and while it was written ahead of the Platinum Jubilee celebrations, the principles, warnings and guidance contained within still apply.
Reporting
Report all Fraud and Cybercrime to Action Fraud by calling 0300 123 2040 or online. Forward suspicious emails to report@phishing.gov.uk. Report SMS scams by forwarding the original message to 7726 (spells SPAM on the keypad).