Hackney Council in London has said that a cyberattack earlier this week is continuing to have a “significant impact” on its services.
Earlier this week, the north London council said it had been the target of a serious cyberattack, which was affecting many of its services and IT systems.
“The attack is continuing to have a significant impact on council services and we ask residents to not contact us unless absolutely necessary,” it said.
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In an update on the situation the council said that its staff are working with the National Cyber Security Centre, National Crime Agency, external experts and the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to investigate and understand the impact of the cyberattack on its servers. It has also reported the incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office.
“We understand that residents will be anxious about the risk to their data, and we are working closely with the ICO, police agencies and other experts. We are committed to sharing further information about this as soon as we can, including what, if any, actions residents may need to take,” the council said.
The nature of the cyberattack, when it happened and what services are affected, is still unclear.
The council said that it was learning more about the attack but said it had decided not to share any more information at this stage “in order to make sure we do not inadvertently assist the attackers”.
Earlier this year, a cyberattack on Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council cause significant problems and costs for the authority.
