The news has broken overnight that multiple London councils,
local government bodies responsible for service provision, including garbage collection and social care, have suffered cyberattacks. Here’s what we know so far, along with multiple warnings from security experts.
The London Cyberattacks – What We Know
As first reported by the BBC, several London councils have been targeted by cyberattackers, causing issues with their IT systems and some service provisions being impacted as a result.
“Hackney Council said it had raised its cyber security threat to critical,” the BBC said, “while Westminster City Council said people were struggling to contact the authority.” The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea council has said it is investigating the incident.
The Local Democracy Reporting Service has confirmed it has seen official council memos urging staff to cooperate in protecting both the council and residents of the boroughs involved, as well as another stating that all networks were shut down as a precautionary measure following the attack at one of the councils involved.
“We are trying to encourage councils to have better resilience, but the reality is, I’m afraid, those who breach protections are going to try more and more ways to get into those systems,” Mayor of London Sir Sadiq Khan said.
The Royal Borough of Kensington & Chelsea has issued a statement, which has confirmed the cyberattacks and said it is “working closely together and with the help of specialist cyber incident experts and the National Cyber Security Centre, with the focus on protecting systems and data, restoring systems, and maintaining critical services to the public.“
Security Experts Issue Multiple Warnings Following London Cyberattacks
“This coordinated incident highlights a critical vulnerability in modern public services: the double-edged sword of shared IT infrastructure,” Dray Agha, senior director of security operations at Huntress, said. “While such systems are efficient, the breach of one council can instantly compromise its partners, crippling essential services for hundreds of thousands of residents. It underscores an urgent need to move beyond simple cost-saving IT models and invest in resilient, segmented networks that can contain such threats and protect vital public services.”
Rebecca Moody, head of data research at Comparitech, posited that the attacks could be ransomware-related as “the councils are experiencing both system disruption and potential data theft.” Governments, including local government bodies, are a key target, Moody warned, “so far this year, we’ve noted 174 confirmed attacks on government organisations across the globe. These attacks have resulted in data breaches of over 780,000 records and average ransom demands of nearly $2.5 million.”
“The real concern now, from my perspective, is data integrity and operational disruption,” Ian Nicholson, head of incident response at Pentest People, said, warning that “local authorities sit on highly sensitive information, and incidents like this really do impact those much-needed front-line services.”
I have reached out to the London councils concerned, and will update this developing story in due course.