Kensington and Chelsea Council confirmed it was hit by the cyber attack and said emergency plans have been enacted
A West London council has confirmed it is one of those impacted by a major cyber attack on local authorities in the city, as GCHQ’s cyber security centre confirmed it is assessing the extent.
Kensington and Chelsea Council said in a statement it is dealing with a “cyber security issue”, adding that Westminster City Council and Hammersmith and Fulham Council have also been impacted by the attack.
The local authority said it is working closely with cyber incident experts and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and is focusing on protecting systems and data, restoring systems and maintaining critical services to the public.
Kensington and Chelsea said the incident was identified by itself and Westminster City – which it shares a number of IT systems and services with as part of joint arrangement – on Monday morning (November 24).
They said a number of systems have been impacted across both organisations, including phone lines. They are urging anyone in an emergency to contact the numbers at the top of the council’s contact page.
They wrote: “We are diverting more resources to manage this incident and monitor emails and phone lines, and the councils have invoked business continuity and emergency plans to ensure we are still delivering critical services to residents, focusing on supporting the most vulnerable.”
They added: “Today we are letting partners and residents know what has happened, we have already informed the Information Commissioners’ Office, in line with following all the relevant protocols. We don’t have all the answers yet, as the management of this incident is still ongoing.
“But we know people will have concerns, so we will be updating residents and partners further over the coming days. At this stage it is too early to say who did this, and why, but we are investigating to see if any data has been compromised – which is standard practice.
“Our IT teams worked through the night yesterday and a number of successful mitigations were put in place, and we remain vigilant should there be any further incidents or issues.”
The council said people may see some delays in response times and services over the coming days.
A spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service (LDRS): “We are investigating the cause of the incident and will provide more information when it is available. We would like to apologise for any disruption and thank residents for their patience as we work to bring systems back online safely.”
An NCSC spokesperson said the body is aware of an incident affecting some local authority services in London and is working to understand any potential impact.
A Met Police spokesperson said: “Met Police received a referral from Action Fraud on Monday, 24 November, following reports of a suspected cyber-attack against borough councils in London. Enquiries remain in the early stages within the Met’s Cyber Crime Unit. No arrests have been made.”
The LDRS has seen an internal memo by Hammersmith and Fulham Council saying yesterday it responded to a “serious cyber security incident”. It says a few connectivity issues remain but these cannot be resolved until they hear from Kensington and Chelsea Council guaranteeing their networks are safe, which could take some days.
It also urged staff not to click on any links sent from Kensington and Chelsea Council and Westminster City Council colleagues in Outlook or Teams accounts “until further notice”.
The LDRS saw a similar memo from Westminster City Council. Staff at Hackney Council were sent an urgent communication on Tuesday morning (November 25), warning them against phishing and social engineering attack methods, though the East London council is understood not to have been hit itself.
Have you been affected by this? If so, contact Adrian at [email protected] or Callum at [email protected]
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