New advice from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) has urged UK organisations to ensure they are prepared for potential cyber-attacks.

The warning comes after malicious cyber incidents targeted Ukraine amid growing tensions between the West and Russia over fears of an invasion of Ukraine.

In response, the NCSC, part of GCHQ, has updated its guidance to UK companies and organisations.

Among the advice given to organisations, the NCSC says groups should patch their systems, ensuring that they are up to date and any known vulnerabilities are removed.

Organisations should also improve their access controls and enable multi-factor authentication as a further precaution, as well as implement an effective incident response plan. It is important to ensure online defences are working as expected.

Checking that backups and restore mechanisms are working is also essential, to minimise the effect of any attack.

Finally, organisations should keep up to date with the latest threat and mitigation information. If hit by a cyber-attack, organisations should report the incident to the NCSC’s 24/7 Incident Management team.

While no current threats to the UK have been identified, the guidance will allow organisations to build resilience and stay ahead of any potential cyber-attacks.

The recent cyber activity in and around Ukraine fits the pattern of Russian behaviour previously observed, including in the damaging 2017 NotPetya incident, as well as previous attacks against Georgia.

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The Ukraine attack took place on the 14th of January. It saw the websites of multiple Ukrainian Government departments taken down.

Messages in Russian, Ukrainian and Polish warned: “Ukrainians! … All information about you has become public. Be afraid and expect worse. It’s your past, present and future.” Images showed the Ukrainian flag and map crossed out.

According to the NCSC, the UK Government has attributed responsibility for both these attacks to the Russian Government.

NCSC Director of Operations Paul Chichester said: “The NCSC is committed to raising awareness of evolving cyber threats and presenting actionable steps to mitigate them. While we are unaware of any specific cyber threats to UK organisations in relation to events in Ukraine, we are monitoring the situation closely and it is vital that organisations follow the guidance to ensure they are resilient.

“Over several years, we have observed a pattern of malicious Russian behaviour in cyberspace. Last week’s incidents in Ukraine bear the hallmarks of similar Russian activity we have observed before.”