Hackney Mayor Philip Glanville confirmed on Tuesday, October 13, that the council was hit by "a serious cyber-attack," which has been affecting its services and systems. The council already tapped the help of UK National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) to probe the incident, according to Sky News.
Mayor Glanville posted about the hacking in Hackney Council's website, which has affected many services being provided by the council, which may be "unavailable" for the public. The mayor just shared minimal information about the attack as the "investigation is still at an early stage," but the council vowed to provide latest information to its website when available as the enquiry progresses.
The Hackney Council cyber attack
As of this writing, there are still no clear details on the type of cyber attack that hit the council and whether residents' personal data has been compromised. The mayor also advised the public that "some council services may be unavailable or slower than normal."
Aside from NCSC, council officials are also working with the Ministry of Housing, Local Government, communities as well as external experts to investigate on the cyber attack and the range of its impact. Glanville also noted that their focus is to continue in providing essential frontline services, particularly to the most vulnerable and protect data while reinstating the affected services at soonest possible time.
The incident was shared on Twitter via the council's official account, which vowed to immediately provide updates. Also, while the council's call center is still running, it has been "extremely busy," so the council urged the public not to contact them unless it is "absolutely necessary."
We have been subject to a serious cyberattack, which is affecting many of our services and IT systems. We're working with @NCSC and experts to investigate, and will provide updates as we get them. Please avoid contacting us unless absolutely necessary.https://t.co/2nAt6aYKbd — Hackney Council (@hackneycouncil) October 13, 2020
Although it is still unclear whether what kind of attack hit the Hackney Council, it is necessary to have the highest security measures on government offices, particularly for public services like councils, transportation, and hospitals.
It is highly important to have backup data file and to use two-point security feature to employ greater security on the website and data.
Cyber attacks on UN International Maritime Organization
At the start of October, news broke that the United Nation's International Maritime Organization (IMO)'s website was hit by a cyber-attack, which forced its IT specialists to shut down main systems to avoid more damage.
The London-based group is the one regulating shipping activities and this time is crucial for the group, which is working on Maritime Environmental Protection Committee's virtual session by the end of 2020 to discuss ways to cut carbon emissions from the shipping industry.
The attack affected the IMO's services and website since Sept. 30 and it has been coordinating with U.N.'s cyber security and IT experts to identify the source of the attack and restore its services.
According to an IMO spokesperson, its secretariat as well as internal and external emails remained normally functioning, but the organization continued to restore access to public documents.
Meanwhile, IMO published an update on October 2 that its website has been restored while the GISIS database, Virtual Publications, and IMODOCS services were restored later on October 1. However, other services were still unavailable until October 5.
The Info Security thinks this is a ransomware attack, although the body did not provide any update about the details of the attack yet. Meanwhile, the IMO website states that its file servers are kept in the UK while its extensive backup systems are in Geneva. Its IT group regularly tests the backup and restore system.
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Written by CJ Robles
