A cyber-attack on Redcar & Cleveland Borough Council earlier this year has reportedly cost around £10m in recovery costs.
The attack, which took place in February, caused online public services to be unavailable for 135,000 locals for over a week. According to Teesside live, the local authority stated a figure of £10.4m in a budget update report provided to members of its cabinet.
Specifically, costs required for infrastructure and system recovery or replacement cost £2.4m, while the cost to individual council directorates was the worst hit, and accounted for £3.4m. There was also a cost impact of just under £1m as a result of a reduction in enforcement income and lower collection levels for both council tax and business rates towards the end of the 2019/20 financial year, caused by computer systems being out of action for a period.
The report also claimed the council acted quickly and effectively, working extremely hard to mitigate the effects on key services and most vulnerable residents, whilst it “permeated almost all functions of the council and the required response and consequential impact had an inevitable bearing on its finances.”
Whilst the council had industry standard tools deployed to secure its computer network at the time of the attack, which it said had been configured to provide optimum protection, it has since made additional improvements to its cyber-defenses, with further upgrades planned.
“We are also on the list of pilot authorities to enroll on a National Cyber Security Center (NCSC) scheme which will provide threat intelligence information exchange between the council and NCSC,” the report said. “The result of all of this is that the council’s cyber-defenses will be far more advanced than most peers in local government.”
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