Hackney still reeling from Cyber Attack six months on

10th May 2021

A cyber attack inflicted on Hackney LBC more than six months ago is still plaguing the council, which is in line for a bailout package worth millions after the government made an unprecedented grant to Redcar & Cleveland Council to cover some of its cyber attack losses.

Both Redcar & Cleveland and Hackney were hit by criminal ransomware attacks last February and October respectively, with each estimated to have cost up to £10m to rectify. Redcar & Cleveland last week became the first English council to receive a government grant towards expenditure directly attributable to recovery from a ransomware attack, amounting to £3.7m.

Hackney's mayor Phil Glanville told LGC that the borough's priority had been "investing in services that support the most vulnerable, making sure social care systems and allocations and billing for council tax and business rates are back up and running" - "but in some cases rebuilding that from scratch, which takes a lot of time". "We were able to get contract tracing back up and running in 48 hours, and we could still plug people into food support," he explained. "But the system for processing business rates, which was a mix of new and old IT systems, was more affected."

 

Source: https://www.lgcplus.com/finance/hackney-still-reeling-from-cyber-attack-six-months-on-13-04-2021/

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