All UK tertiary education providers and research centres will soon benefit from an extra layer of cyber security protection against ransomware attacks.
At least 50% of major ransomware incidents experienced by the sector since August 2020 have been caused by attackers exploiting the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP), a common way for users to access their computers or servers remotely from another device.
Following consultation with the sector during summer 2021, Jisc will automatically block access from outside the UK to RDP (port 3389) from 28 March 2023. Only inbound traffic from known UK IP addresses will be allowed to proceed to port 3389. Existing restrictions will shift from an opt-in control to being on by default.
