United Kingdom has started the process of scanning all connected devices in their country for vulnerabilities and will inform the device owners if any critical concern is found. National Cyber Security Centre(NCSC) will be performing a scheduled scan with freely available tools operating in dedicated cloud hosted environments via two IP addresses 18.17.7.246 and 35.177.10.231.
The cyber arm of GCHQ claims it will conduct scanning scientifically through senior technical professional and in tested environments and will not interfere in the regular operations of the systems that are being scanned.
Britain’s NCSC states it will track down the vulnerability by interacting with the system replicating the web browser’s interaction with the web client.
All data collected via scanning will be stored for future analysis to get an overview of the vulnerabilities hitting the functioning devices in the UK- part of the British Governments Cyber Security Strategy.
Aim behind the said scans is simple- to better understand the security and susceptibilities existing in UK, make individuals and companies better understand their security posture, and block exploitation of zero-day vulnerabilities, if/when detected.
NOTE- Any data thought to be personal or sensitive will be removed from analysis and tagged in such a way that capturing it in the future is next to impossible. Therefore, all those concerned about privacy might take a big sigh of relief, as they can stay assured of their sensitive data falling into government or wrong hands. Connected devices list includes routers, modems, gateways, hotspots, ethernet hubs, repeaters, bridges, and switch.
