Impacts on Organisations · Individuals · Critical Infrastructure · Data Breaches
CSZoneEdexcel GCSE Computer Science 1CP2
Impacts on Organisations
Why Cyber Attacks are Costly
Financial loss: ransomware payments, lost sales during downtime, regulatory fines (GDPR penalties for data breaches)
Reputational damage: loss of customer trust after a breach; customers switch to competitors
Legal liability: organisations may face lawsuits if customer data is stolen due to inadequate security
Operational disruption: DoS attacks, ransomware, or system breaches can halt all business operations
Impacts on Individuals
Personal Consequences of Cyber Attacks
Identity theft: stolen personal data used to commit fraud, take out loans, or create fake accounts in the victim's name. Can take years and significant cost to resolve.
Emotional harm: stress, anxiety, feeling violated after a privacy breach or being stalked online
Critical Infrastructure Threats
Attacks on Essential Services
Critical infrastructure includes power grids, water treatment, hospitals, transport, and financial systems. Cyber attacks on these can have life-threatening consequences — e.g. hospital ransomware attacks delaying surgery.
Nation-state attacks: some cyber attacks are carried out by governments against other countries' infrastructure
Real examples: Colonial Pipeline ransomware (2021), WannaCry affecting NHS (2017)
Edexcel may ask you to evaluate the severity of cyber threats in a given scenario
Exam Practice
Have a go at this question
Edexcel-style question
A hospital's computer systems are attacked by ransomware. Describe two impacts this could have on the hospital.
4 marks
Patient records and systems become inaccessible, causing operations and appointments to be cancelled [1+1]. The hospital may be forced to pay a ransom, resulting in financial loss, or face significant cost to restore systems from backups [1+1].