Cyber ‘issue’ hits three London councils with shared IT services

Three councils in London that have historically shared IT services have confirmed being impacted by an unspecified “cybersecurity issue.”

The incident is primarily affecting the Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City Council, local authorities governing some of the capital’s wealthiest districts.

Some of their IT services are also shared with the Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham, which said it was taking “precautionary measures to review, isolate and protect our networks.”

“We're working to fix the problem as quickly as possible and we apologise for the inconvenience,” they said.

In a statement on Tuesday, the primarily affected councils said they initially identified the cybersecurity issue on Monday morning and have since been working with specialists and the National Cyber Security Centre to respond.

“We know a number of systems are impacted across both organisations, including phone-lines,” Kensington and Chelsea stated.

“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.”

Although the council said it was “too early to say who did this, and why” it was “investigating to see if any data has been compromised – which is standard practice” and had informed the data protection regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office, as per best practice.

“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,” the council added.

Media reports that the incident also affected Hackney Council in East London are “mistaken,” according to a spokesperson: “Hackney Council is unaffected by the cyber attack that is reported to be affecting some councils in London. We have strong measures in place to keep our services secure and have reminded all staff about their responsibilities to ensure that data is protected.”