The Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy says that large swathes of critical infrastructure are vulnerable to ransomware attacks.
Parliament's Joint Committee on the National Security Strategy (JCNSS) said responsibility for tackling ransomware attacks should be taken off the Home Office - which the report accuses of giving political priority to other issues - and given to the Cabinet Office and overseen directly by the deputy prime minister.
The report claimed former home secretary Suella Braverman "showed no interest" in the issue and instead focused on illegal migration and small boats.
Comment: Western nations have been issuing these kinds of threats for a few years now, however this comes at a time when cyberattacks on public infrastructure, that aren't attributed to any obvious motive, seem to have been on the increase.
Moreover, there's a variety of converging trends, from food plant fires to weaponised mass migration and staged terror attacks, in addition to the West's attempts to set the Middle East on fire, that point to a time approaching when the establishment may feel it appropriate to finally roll out their 'cyber pandemic'.
The following is just a selection of incidents from this year: