Leicester City Council says it will be days before it can restore IT systems and phone lines after falling victim to a cyber attack. .
The council was hit last Thursday by an unspecified incident which caused disruptions to its services and has since been working with the National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) to investigate.
“Over the weekend we continued to work with our cyber security and law enforcement partners, as well as learning from other councils that have suffered attacks, to identify the nature of the incident and the steps we need to take to get our systems back up and running. online.” said Richard Sword, strategic director of urban developments and neighborhoods at the council.
“We expect it to be at least until mid-week before we can begin the recovery process, beginning with our most critical services.”
Meanwhile, he said, council officers are working to keep frontline services running with as little disruption as possible, and extra phone lines have been set up for anyone needing urgent assistance.
Leicester City Council is not alone
The incident marks the latest in a series of cyber attacks targeting city councils across the country.
In January, services at three Kent councils were severely affected by cyber attacks. Similarly, Kent County Council's children's department was the victim of a phishing attack last year when an officer clicked on a link in an email to reset his password.
Gloucester City Council was also hit by a cyber attack which cost it more than £1 million to recover from.
A rise in attacks on UK public services has sparked criticism of the government's handling of national cyber security.
This week, the UK's Joint Committee on National Security Strategy (JCNSS) warned of a rise in cybersecurity-related incidents, stating that a recent government report did nothing to address the problem.
“The committee has heard worrying evidence of how unprepared and unsupported local authorities in the UK are to deal with cyber attacks that could paralyze or temporarily disrupt essential local services, and that the government is fully aware of this,” the chairwoman said. of the committee, Dame Margaret Beckett.
“But there is nothing in the response to address or mitigate those concerns, there is no offer to counteract the lack of resources and skills at the local level; there is no offer of further help to the responsible authorities or the populations that would be affected” .
Last year, research by software provider TechnologyOne found that six in ten senior leaders in UK councils said they had an outdated approach to cybersecurity, but could not afford the cost of a security breach.
