City council and NHS bombarded by cyber attacks

COMPUTER systems of public bodies like Dundee City Council and NHS Tayside are being subjected to tens of thousands of cyber attacks each month.

Dundee City Council said its system is subjected to “thousands” of attempted hacks every single month.

An Abertay University expert on ethical hacking has warned the problem is getting worse.

Hackers either attempt to attack the IT infrastructure or send thousands of phishing emails to i ndividual users. These are made to look like official emails but can infect a network with a virus or malware if the user clicks on a link inside the message.

Criminals also use ransomware — a type of virus that locks a computer system until a fee is paid.

A Freedom of Information request to Dundee City Council revealed just how often its computer network is attacked. It said t he network i s “continually under attack and our mitigation mechanisms stop thousands of potential attacks each day”.

Council systems have only been infected three times and no personal information has been stolen.

A council spokeswoman said:“The council is actively engaged in ongoing proactive internet safety awareness campaigns with staff to continue to raise the awareness of cyber crime.”

NHS Tayside said that in the four weeks to November 24, their systems detected nearly 8,000 bids at infection.

Their response stated: “NHS Tayside is often subject to malware infection attempts, mostly borne via email. The infection attempts vary in payload and are numerous. NHS Tayside has been subject to occasional/moderate ransomware attacks, again, via email, but has effective file restoration strategies.”