Security News > 2024 > March > UK council yanks IT systems and phone lines offline following cyber ambush

A cursory scan of the major ransomware groups' leak blogs shows none of the big names are yet claiming responsibility for the attack on Leicester City Council.

"Over the weekend we have continued to work with our cybersecurity and law enforcement partners, as well as learning from other councils who have had attacks, to identify the nature of the incident and the steps we need to take to get our systems back online," said Richard Sword, strategic director of city developments and neighborhoods at Leicester City Council.

The council concluded its brief statement about the incident by reminding the world it's not the only UK councils tthat have suffered a cyberattack in the past year.

St Helens Council also reported a suspected ransomware attack in August 2023, an incident that took the authorities months to fully restore services.

"Asked about what the attack means for Leicester city residents who handed personal data over to the council, Boiten said:"I mentioned the British Library, they've just come out with a detailed report on what actually happened in [its attack] and I think that's quite possibly representative for this type of attack.

"So, those are fairly standard protections in that area. Similarly, the sensitive data that Leicester City Council has - not so much the data around payments - the way more sensitive data might be in the social work corner of the council, or anything where personal circumstances get dealt with. But then again, you would expect that such data has extra protection on it so that an attack that hits the main systems doesn't automatically get into the sensitive databases that have extra levels of protection."

News URL

https://go.theregister.com/feed/www.theregister.com/2024/03/12/leicester_city_council_stays_shtum/