UK’s nuclear waste unit Sellafield fined for cybersecurity failings

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LONDON (Reuters) -Britain’s Office for Nuclear Regulation (ONR) fined nuclear waste processing firm Sellafield Ltd 332,500 pounds ($440,795) for cybersecurity shortfalls over a four-year period, it said on Wednesday.

“Sellafield Ltd failed to meet the standards, procedures and arrangements, set out in its own approved plan for cyber security and for protecting sensitive nuclear information,” the ONR said.

It added that there was no evidence that any vulnerabilities at Sellafield had been exploited as a result of the failings.

Sellafield is a nuclear decommissioning site controlled by British government body, the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority.

Sellafield said in a statement it takes cybersecurity seriously as reflected in its guilty pleas. The charges are related to historical offences, it said.

Sellafield said there was no suggestion that public safety had been compromised and that it had not been subject to a “successful” cyberattack.

It added it had made improvements to its systems, network and structures.

($1 = 0.7543 pounds)

(Reporting by Muvija M, writing by Sarah Young; Editing by William James)