Russian Hackers Go After Gloucester

Gloucester City Council suffered a serious cyber security incident on the 20th December that resulted in the compromise of certain IT systems and disruption of daily operations. The council's online revenue and benefits, planning and customer services have all been affected after the attack knocked out parts of a council website and the attack has been linked to the work of Russian hackers. 

Systems including online revenue and benefits, planning and customer services are still down across the authority more than a month after the attack was detected.

The cost of fixing the damage could run into millions of pounds, if similar attacks on other councils are anything to go by Gloucester businesses using council services could face months of disruption after a cyber attack knocked out parts of the computer system.

The attack is so serious that the National Crime Agency and the National Cyber Security Centre are involved in the investigation.

Other local authorities and even government agencies have put the council into IT quarantine, blocking the council's emails.  Gloucester City Council said its sources, who do not wish to be named, allege the cyber attack was carried out by hackers from Russia. Officials at Gloucester City Council must be "more transparent" over the hack attack on the authority, a committee chairman has warned.

According to the Local Democracy Reporting Service, the malware made its way into the local authority's system embedded in an email which had been sent to a council officer.The harmful software, known as sleeper malware, is understood to have been dormant for some time before it was activated. Other local authorities and government agencies are currently blocking the council's emails.

Online application forms used to claim for housing benefit, council tax support, test and trace support payments, discretionary housing payments and several other services have been delayed or are unavailable. Residents have been asked to contact the council via email instead.

The council has warned the problem could take up to six months to resolve as affected servers and systems need to be rebuilt.
 

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