Council bouncing back after hacker attack
Redcar and Cleveland say 90% of IT is now operating properly after the cyber attack in February.
A Teesside council disabled by a cyber attack has revealed 90% of its IT systems are now back up and running.
Redcar and Cleveland Council was hit by a ransomware attack in February which rendered its website completely inoperable.
Thousands of residents were disrupted – and some officials were forced to use pen and paper to keep services running.
Now the authority has revealed all its major systems had been restored from back-ups by IT teams despite the effects of the coronavirus pandemic.
A spokesman said: "The council’s IT engineers have prioritised systems based on service need and have been successful in restoring data in 90% of the systems to allow all the council’s front-line services to the public to continue as normal.
"The council’s website has also been rebuilt.
"Work will continue to restore a small number of other systems which have not yet been restored but are having little or no impact on external services."
A criminal investigation is still ongoing into who was behind the ransomware attack – with the National Crime Agency taking the lead.
Officials say the attack had not affected the council’s response to the coronavirus pandemic and its ability to offer key services.
The spokesman added: "Our IT team also responded quickly to ensure that remote working facilities were available for several hundred staff who were deployed to work from home at short notice because of the covid-19 requirements.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service understands that no ransom money has been paid to the hackers.
But questions have come over how much the attack had cost the council.
Officials say it is still "too early to give an accurate figure" on the impact as teams are "still working through the cost" of restoring and rebuilding systems.
The spokesman added: "The majority of the restoration work has been completed by the council’s IT staff, supported by external organisations at their cost.
"We have been assured at a high level that the Government is supportive of our recovery from the attack – from both a funding and resourcing points of view."
Councils receive dozens of attempted cyber attacks every week.
Requests for councils to reveal exactly how many attacks they’ve suffered – or the type of attack they’ve faced – have been declined in the past over fears revealing them would put systems at risk.
But experts at the council did reveal such threats were becoming "more and more sophisticated".
"Our infrastructure at the time of the attack met the appropriate standards required of local government and had been the subject of external testing," added the spokesman.
"However, our systems have now been rebuilt with enhanced future security in mind.
"We have comprehensive 24/7 threat monitoring in place – and have received specialist advice from the National Cyber Security Centre and other industry experts during our recovery from the attack.
"Our security will be continually evaluated and reviewed as the threat from cyber-crime evolves."
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