Council to boost defences in battle against cyber criminals

Council bosses have revealed plans to up defences against cyber attackers with new training, software and safeguards.

Sunderland City Council’s Scrutiny Co-ordinating Committee last week heard a presentation about the council’s defences and “cyber hygiene” which forms part of a national drive to improve security after the impact of huge global cyber attacks in recent years.

Examples include the ‘Wannacry’ ransomware incident which crippled NHS systems alongside causing disruption at Nissan’s Sunderland plant.

In the past six months, Sunderland City Council has seen a rise in attacks, from cyber criminals attempting to disrupt services to malicious login attempts and ‘phishing’ emails.

In just one week in November 2018, the council received about 400,000 spam emails.

Head of Customer Service, Intelligence and ICT at the Council, Liz St Louis, said this number was “in no way unique” and normal for a council of Sunderland’s size.

She added security upgrades were needed due to the “recognised and increased threat” from cyber attacks, noting a recent global data breach which saw more than 770million emails and passwords leaked to hackers.

Future plans include re- placing the council’s existing network, making a shift to Windows 10 and introducing new training programmes for councillors.

During discussion, Coun Darryl Dixon raised concerns about the the “vulnerable” period of transferring between the old and new network systems.

The meeting heard that new contract for the network would have a condition around “dual-running” alongside extra safety checks.

In response to a question from Coun Paula Hunt, IT bosses confirmed key functions, such as social care, would be protected in the case of a cyber attack.