The leader of Kensington and Chelsea Council, cllr Elizabeth Campbell, said a review will take place ‘when the time is right’
A West London council at the centre of a devastating cyber attack has promised to launch a review “when the time is right” and warned some services may take “months” to return to normal.
Kensington and Chelsea Council leader, councillor Elizabeth Campbell, said the authority will work with the information watchdog and the country’s cyber crime agency, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), to establish what happened.
She has also promised to work with the leaders of Westminster City Council and Hammersmith and Fulham Council, which were impacted by the hack, to understand how their shared infrastructure was impacted and “in future to protect ourselves even more than we did on this occasion”.
Cllr Campbell did not say when the review would happen while a recent update on the council’s website said its focus at the moment was “tackling the issues the attack has created and getting services fully running and systems back online”. During Full Council last night (Wednesday, December 3), the leader thanked staff she said worked “literally day and night” and warned of set-backs as the council recovers.
She said: “This is a complex issue, but people are working hard to overcome challenges and keep this council running as well as it possibly can. Our main aims will be to support residents who need us, fix things as quickly as possible, and to be transparent with the public on where we are on this recovery journey.”
She added advisors warn of weeks of disruption and in some cases “it could be months.” She said: “Let me be crystal clear: this remains an incredibly serious incident. We expect disruption to continue for at least two weeks and the ramifications to rumble on for months after that.
“We will continue to tackle this incident with honesty, professionalism and absolute determination. Our priority is to protect our residents, restoring our systems and ensuring that services remain resilient. We will keep members and the public updated.”
‘Honest and upfront’
Cllr Campbell said the council had been “honest and upfront” about the data breach and said it was still unclear whether the data contained any personal or financial information. Nor could she rule out the possibility it may end up in the public domain.
She said the council’s cyber defence systems worked to mitigate the damage while systems were taken offline to stop the attackers accessing more data. She said the attack likely started on the council’s infrastructure, that it was hardest hit and that it will take longer to recover as a result.
During Wednesday’s Full Council, Maxine Holdsworth, the chief executive of Kensington and Chelsea Council, confirmed the authority was hit by a cyber attack last Monday(November 24) and had cyber security specialists working onsite by lunchtime.
She said systems were taken offline to “both protect the council’s data and the systems”. She said an emergency command centre was set up and the Metropolitan Police and the NSCS were informed of the incident on the same day.
She said residents have been informed of the data breach and said it may be more difficult to contact the council or use its website, which she said was safe. She said: “The work to make sure these systems are fully safe and to bring into full operation continues and is following best practice steps. The command arrangements will continue at least until this time next week.”
The council confirmed it is being advised by the NCC group, cyber security experts who helped the British Library recover from a cyber attack and other local authorities and universities.
The council alerted the public to the cyber attack on the afternoon of November 25. According to the council, it was aware of “unusual activity” on the morning of Monday, November 24, but it wasn’t clear what the nature of it was immediately.
It took immediate action and informed residents at the earliest opportunity, including on Friday (November 28), when it became aware of a data breach. Before the November 25 alert, the council said it was experiencing “some system issues”, according to posts from the council’s official X account.
The council said an investigation into the incident involving crime agencies is ongoing and that is cannot comment further. It also said it doesn’t yet know who carried out the attack or why.
Bin collection and other services
In its latest update on December 3, the council said many on-street services like twice weekly bin collections and street cleaning will go ahead as normal while other more digitally-reliant services remain disrupted.
The council said residents who pay council tax by Direct Debit may experience issues, namely that payment will not be taken on the usual date but instead at a later date once its systems are back online.
Residents are being urged to keep the funds in their account so the payment can be collected when the service resumes. They said business rates and council tax are still due and payable and that while Direct Debit remains temporarily unavailable, other payment methods remain operational and secure.
The council also said the cyber-attack coincided with the weekly pay-run for its internal foster carers and it is working on a solution to ensure payments are made and that all payments due will be updated and paid.
The authority also said no one will be subject to rent arrears action if rent is due but cannot be collected because of the current cyber issues.
On Friday, the council confirmed some of its data has been “copied and taken away”. The council said it believes the breach only impacts historical data, understood to be archived 2006-2020 data.
However in an online post it adds that while the information has not been stolen “it is possible it could end up in the public domain”.
Have you been affected by this? If so, contact Adrian at [email protected] or Callum at [email protected]
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