Ministry of Justice splurged £50M on security – still missed Legal Aid Agency cyberattack

The UK's Ministry of Justice spent £50 million ($67 million) on cybersecurity improvements at the Legal Aid Agency (LAA) before the high-profile cyberattack it disclosed last year.

The revelation was made in a report published by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) today, which, alongside a thorough castigation of the MoJ's handling of the unsafe HMP Dartmoor prison, highlights a list of failures and issues regarding the handling of the LAA cyberattack.

Government officials told the PAC that the LAA's security shortcomings had been on its risk register since 2021. The agency's risk rating for a cyberattack was "extremely high," prompting a huge cash injection to address the various issues, split into £8.5 million, £10.5 million, and £32 million rounds.

Both the MoJ and LAA acknowledged that the cyberattack, considered one of the most sensitive in British history, began in December 2024, but was not ...