The 2023 collapse of the 158-year old UK logistics company KNP resulted in the loss of 700 jobs. The devastating cyber attack that shuttered the company has returned to the spotlight this week with a BBC Panorama documentary examining the real-world consequences of ransomware and the rapidly evolving scale of cybercrime in the UK.
The programme paints a stark picture, one that is echoed in supporting commentary from both the UK’s National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and National Crime Agency (NCA). The UK is facing a structural shift in the threat landscape, one in which cybercriminals are more organised, well-resourced and increasingly targeting British businesses and institutions with impunity.
The KNP attack is a particularly sobering reminder not because it was unique, but because it was typical of the modus operandi employed by cybercriminals today. A single weak password – used to gain unauthorised access – was all it took to trigger a devastating ransomware event that paralysed operations, disrupted cash flow and ultimately forced the company into administration.
Perimeter security to identity-centric defence
Many UK businesses still invest predominantly in perimeter defences, the focus of which is to prevent unauthorized access and cyber threats that originate outside their network. This approach demonstrates a severe underestimation within organisations of the growing attack surface that needs to be safeguarded. Today’s organisations have cloud and hybrid environments with distributed workforces and an exploding number of endpoints.
Cybercriminals are gaining access with legitimate credentials through AI-powered phishing tactics, third-party compromise or dark web leaks. These legitimate credentials allow for quicker, quieter access while also being more difficult for cybersecurity systems to detect than brute-force techniques.
Outdated perimeter-based security models also pave the way for privilege escalation – gaining administrative or high-level access that allows attackers to disable security tools, exfiltrate sensitive data or deploy ransomware at scale.
The complexity of modern organisations and the threats they face necessitate a zero-trust security approach that requires all users and devices to be continuously and explicitly validated when accessing a network, system or data.
Why privileged access management must be treated as a priority business risk
In KNP’s case, the ransomware attack wasn’t merely a serious data breach – it was a business-ending event. Payroll couldn’t be run. Orders couldn’t be fulfilled. The domino effect was swift and devastating once the perpetrators were inside.
A robust PAM solution limits access to critical systems, reduces the blast radius of any compromise and creates audit trails for incident response. PAM also enforces the principle of least privilege – ensuring no single employee or credential has more access than they need to perform their role. Given the AI-powered capabilities and tactics deployed by today’s cybercriminals, adopting a PAM solution provides organisations with a crucial level of control and monitoring for the modern threat threat landscape.
Ransomware has evolved. What about our defences?
The BBC documentary highlighted the shifting tactics of ransomware gangs: double extortion, supply chain targeting and persistent access through credential harvesting. This is not just a technical problem. It’s a people problem, a process problem and a governance problem.
To combat this, UK business leaders must ensure that cybersecurity is embedded into board-level risk strategy.
The following principles can help build meaningful resilience:
- Adopt zero-trust: No user or device should be inherently trusted. Always verify, authenticate and authorise based on context and risk.
- Eliminate password dependency: Move toward passwordless authentication or secure credential vaulting that removes human error and reuse.
- Implement Role-Based Access Controls (RBAC): Ensure that access is assigned strictly according to job function and regularly reviewed.
- Monitor for compromised credentials: Leverage dark web monitoring tools such as BreachWatch to alert your organisation when credentials are exposed, enabling immediate action to be taken.
- Enforce Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA): The critical second layer of account protection must be non-negotiable – especially for privileged access.
A matter of national resilience
As NCA Director-General Graeme Biggar noted during Panorama, the scale of the threat now makes cybercrime a “major economic issue” for the UK. Ransomware is not just targeting major corporations – it’s testing the resilience of supply chains, service providers, schools, charities and local employers.
It’s an indiscriminate threat, one with an exceedingly high cost – from ransom to recovery, reputational damage and regulatory exposure. The cost of prevention is a fraction of that combined cost. The cost of inaction, however, could be existential.
