Councils are sitting ducks for cyber attacks, security boss warns

COUNCILS are sitting ducks for cyber attacks because they struggle to afford insurance and taxpayers end up footing the bill regardless, the founder of Britain’s cyber security agency has warned.

Ciaran Martin made his comments after the leader of a council hit by an £11m ransomware attack told Parliament “the cost for us to insure against these things would have been astronomical”.

Redcar council was left by central government to fund its own clean-up costs after the 2020 attack against its IT systems, leader Mary Lanigan claimed last week.

Speaking to the joint committee on the national security strategy, Cllr Lanigan told MPS: “I would say that local authorities cannot afford insurance cover to that extent, particularly with cyber as it is across countries.”

Government officials had hoped cyber insurance would be a private sector-driven way of improving Britain’s ability to fend off ransomware attacks, in which mostly foreign gangs scramble computers with viruses and demand huge payments to unscramble them again.

Mr Martin, who helped set up the National Cyber Security Centre, said: “It would be good if central government, local government and the insurers could get together and see if they can work this out.

“If local authorities can’t afford proper cover and something goes wrong then it’s taxpayers – either local or national – who end up paying.”

Abi Brown, of the Local Government Association, added: “Research has highlighted issues with the UK’S cyber insurance market available to local government, including expensive premiums and unclear policy coverage.”