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London councils hit by 'cyber attack' with data potentially compromised
Councils including Hackney and Westminster raised cyber threat to Critical amid phishing attempts aimed at disrupting services and accessing resident data, officials said.
- On Tuesday , multiple London councils escalated their internal cyber threat level to Critical after intelligence indicated several boroughs were targeted within the last 24-48 hours, including Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea and Westminster City Council, which have been responding since Monday.
- Hackney Council staff were sent urgent warnings about phishing and social engineering and told to report suspicious activity immediately because speed is critical.
- Criminals accessed and encrypted some 440,000 files, phone lines, call centres, and the Report It online service have been disrupted, with systems unlikely to be fully restored before the end of this week.
- Authorities have activated contingency measures and asked national cyber agencies to investigate, with the Information Commissioner's Office informed and the Metropolitan Police Cyber Unit and National Crime Agency engaged.
- The National Cyber Security Centre said, `We are aware of an incident affecting some local authority services in London and are working to understand any potential impact`, with experts warning that attackers can move through connected systems faster than councils can respond.
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Total News Sources12
Leaning Left2Leaning Right0Center5Last UpdatedBias Distribution71% Center
Bias Distribution
- 71% of the sources are Center
71% Center
L 29%
C 71%
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