Staggering number of cyber attacks fought off by Met Office last year revealed as hackers ‘swarm it on daily basis'
Around 40,000 threats a day were fought off by the public bodies in 2024, The Sun on Sunday can reveal.
The Met Office blocked more than five million phishing emails, nearly double 2023's total.
The UK Atomic Energy Authority fended off 1.67million spam and malware messages.
There were 223,589 malicious emails to the Maritime and Coastguard Agency, with another 1,111 at the Government Legal Department.
The Office for National Statistics, which retains hack records for only 90 days, blocked 485,908 emails from November to February — 5,400 a day.
The ONS also faced 15 Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks, where a website or inbox is flooded with traffic.
But the DVLA faced an avalanche, with 7.1million attempted DDoS hits.
Malicious emails to the Cardiff-based agency also nearly tripled from 54,105 in 2023 to 153,189.
Bodies including the MoD, Home Office, HMRC and Cabinet Office refused to release data under Freedom of Information laws — saying it may hamper efforts to fight cyber crime.
It comes as several retail giants, including M&S, have been paralysed by cyber attacks.
Internet security expert Graham Cluley said: 'Britain's public sector isn't just under attack — it's being swarmed digitally on a daily basis.'
The National Cyber Security Centre said it provides advice and guidance for government partners, helping 'bolster the cyber resilience of the public sector'.
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She claimed to be 27 years old, originally from Ghana, and an air stewardess, which acted as cover for the weird times she messaged, due to the time difference. Soon his messages became more flirty, with him calling her 'princess' and sending kiss-face emojis and eventually he revealed he was in the Johannesburg suburb of Brixton, and she obtained his phone number. She continued to extract information from him to buy police time and to find out more details in order for them to track him down - despite saying that flirting with him 'hurt every time and sickened me'. But the South African police refused to make any arrests. She contacted Sakkie Louwrens, the detective on the case, only to find he was now a private investigator. 'It snowballed from there,' Lehanne says. Sakkie convinced cops to try to triangulate Ndlovu's phone - where they track people through their mobile signal. Unfortunately, it wasn't successful. Sakkie said they were 'not far from him' when his phone battery died, meaning he could no longer be traced. He looked like he had seen a ghost Reg Crewe, ex-army reservist After two days of silence, Ndlovu told 'Missy' his phone had been stolen but was growing suspicious of her and asked 'are you for real?' It set off alarm bells to Lehanne, fearing he was 'slipping away'. But police were planning a sting operation and took over contacting him on a local mobile phone. It gave a glimmer of hope to the Brit, who had exchanged thousands of messages with Ndlovu over nearly two and a half years. Shockingly, after the police operation date was pushed back, Ndlovu suddenly disappeared and cut all contact with Missy. Neither Lehanne nor police heard from him again. 'The moment to capture him, arrest him and get justice was gone forever, Missy Falcao was no more… and I felt lost,' she says. 'I broke down. I cried and cried. Police should have made it work. It felt like Christine didn't matter… there were no more chances.' 'To hell with it' In 2020, on the six year anniversary of her aunt's death, Lehanne disobeyed Foreign Office orders by sharing a picture of Ndlovu and his horrific crimes. For years Lehanne had been told 'never publish his photo' on Facebook in case it jeopardised the investigation but one moment pushed her over the edge. 'I thought, 'This case is dead in the water' then I saw a photo on his Facebook account of him suited and booted and enjoying life. 11 Christine and Robbie ran a safari lodge in South Africa Credit: Amazon Prime 11 Lehanne has since gone on to support others whose family members have been killed overseas Credit: Lehanne Sergison 'I thought, 'To hell with it, I have nothing to lose' and published a post showing his face and revealing the horrific things he did to Christine. And it went viral.' 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Civil rights organisation Action Society say every day in South Africa 153 rapes are committed, yet only nine are reported, and up to 11 women are killed. 11 Chillingly Ndlovu claimed Christine was having a fling with him Credit: Amazon Prime 11 Ndlovu was said to have shown no remorse in court Credit: Amazon Prime Kaylynn Palm, head of the non-profit organisation, says there was one three-month period where 900 women were butchered and adds: 'Our bodies are crime scenes' Andrew says: 'We wanted to show the horrendous scale of femicide in South Africa and the world. It's an important story to tell because justice was found due to Lehanne refusing to give up.' The justice system runs on limited resources and 'moves at a pregnant snail's pace', says Kaylynn, pointing out it can take as long as four years for a case to conclude, during which time evidence and documents can be lost. Fortunately Ndlovu is now locked away. Lehanne says it's a relief knowing he 'can't do that to someone again' and adds that her long fight taught her one thing. 'Never give up on anything, be tenacious, noisy, a nuisance,' she says. Reflecting on her nearly three years undercover to snare Ndlovu, Lehanne believes Christine would have thought it 'gutsy, pretty foolish'. After a few moments pause, thinking about her 'lovely, chatty Scouser' aunt, she concludes: 'But I know she would have done the same for me.' The Facebook Honeytrap: Catching A Killer is available to stream on Amazon Prime Video from July 27.
