Ministers consider ban on all UK public bodies making ransomware payments

The proposals’ rationale is to make public sector and infrastructure organisations less appealing as targets for ransomware gangs. Photograph: Karunyapas/Getty Images/iStockphoto

Schools, the NHS and local councils will be banned from making ransomware payments under government proposals to tackle hackers.

In a crackdown on such cyber-attacks, operators of critical national infrastructure will be barred from bowing to demands when criminal gangs hold IT systems hostage.