Local authorities hit by 800 cyber attacks every hour
Local authorities and councils in the UK have reported being hit by more than 263 million cyber attacks in the first six months of this year. In the last two and a half years, 17 attacks were successful.
Local authorities and councils up and down the UK are being hit by an average of 800 cyber attacks every hour, with more than 263 million incidents noted in the first six months of 2019 alone, according to figures gathered by insurance broker Gallagher using the Freedom of Information (FoI) Act.
Having said that, there is another 204 councils failed to respond to the inquiry, it is safe to assume that the true number of attacks could more than double, exceeding 500 million in the first half of the year, the report says.
The report further says, also states that most local authorities don’t old a cyber-insurance policy, placing them at even greater risk. As a matter of fact, out of all the councils that were successfully breached, just one has a cyber-specific policy. Commenting on the epidemic of cyber incidents, Tim Devine, Managing Director of Public Sector & Education at Gallagher, said the councils are faced with “an unprecedented number of cyber-attacks on a daily basis.
“While the majority of these are fended off, it only takes one to get through to cause a significant financial deficit, a cost which the taxpayer will ultimately foot. Costs and reputational damage at this scale can be devastating for public authorities, many of which are already facing stretched budgets.”
Devine says, “In many scenarios, the people responsible for purchasing cyber insurance products need decisions to be made at member, or management level. The cyber threat and the need for cover needs to be high on every local authority’s agenda.”
The nature of public sector organisations in general - not just local authorities - tends to make them tempting targets for cyber criminals thanks to factors such as lack of education among users, lack of attention paid by cash-poor IT teams, and a treasure trove of data held on the general public by councils, schools and universities, the NHS and other social care bodies, and, by extension, the private sector contractors that oversee much public service work.
In many scenarios, the people responsible for purchasing cyber insurance products need decisions to be made at member, or management level. Lastly, the cyber threat and the need for cover needs to be high on every local authority’s agenda.”
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