Town halls ‘failing to admit to cyber attacks after 100m attempts’

COUNCILS HAVE been targeted in nearly 100m cyber attacks in five years, an investigation has found.

Hackers and other criminals are bombarding local authorities’ IT networks at a rate of 37 times every minute, figures suggest.

The findings lay bare the scale of the cyber threat faced by town halls, which store data relating to millions of residents. Research by privacy campaign organisation Big Brother Watch found that councils in the UK were subjected to at least 98m cyber attacks between 2013 and 2017.

This figure covers malicious attempts to damage, disrupt, or gain unauthorised access to computer systems, networks or devices.

The analysis found cyber attacks on local authorities most commonly involve viruses and other malicious software, or phishing, where the perpetrator attempts to obtain sensitive information such as passwords or credit card details.

Over the five years there were 376 cyber security “incidents” – cases where there is an actual breach – affecting more than a quarter of councils, according to the study.

The investigation found 25 councils experienced one or more cyber security incidents resulting in the loss or breach of data. But the report claimed more than half of the authorities affected in those cases did not report them to police or other agencies.

Details obtained through Freedom of Information requests also suggest scores of councils do not provide mandatory cyber security training for staff.

Jennifer Krueckeberg, lead researcher at Big Brother Watch, said: “We are shocked to discover that the majority of councils’ data breaches go unreported.”