Cyber incident 'was an accident - not an attack'

A cyber incident which forced a council to shut down its IT systems was not an "attack, it was an accident", it is understood.

Tewkesbury Borough Council declared a major incident on 4 September after the incident, which a source said was its "own systems testing its own security".

People selling or buying homes in the borough could face delays, because some of the council's property services are yet to be restored.

A spokesperson for the council said no data had been lost in the incident and they had received assurance from experts that the authority's systems are safe.

The source previously told the Local Democracy Reporting Service the incident "has been appropriately taken very seriously".

A major incident was declared when unknown user accounts were found on the council's internal systems.

The council shut down all services provided online and then redeployed staff to towns across the area to ensure the most vulnerable had access to services.

The local authority's chief executive Alistair Cunningham OBE thanked residents and businesses in the area "for their patience so far", and their continued patience as they dealt with a backlog of work.

He confirmed that planning and email systems, as well as financial systems, would be operational again from today.

He added: “By working with a leading cyber incident response specialist alongside the National Cyber Security Centre this meant we had the highest assurance that the required investigations took place.

“We will not comment further on operational details for cyber vulnerability reasons. This has been advised by our law enforcement colleagues to ensure we are cyber resilient, future ready.’’

A council spokesperson added that the council would "gradually revert" to using the normal Tewkesbury.gov.uk email addresses and that emails sent to the temporary recovery.tewkesbury.gov.uk will also continue to be responded to.

IT teams were also working on Modern.gov, a democratic service, Public Access, a planning service, and Citizen Access, and a council tax management portal, with the intention of them being back next week once further security checks have been completed, they added.

When neighbouring Gloucester City Council was hit by a cyber attack in 2021, many people faced delays when trying to move home.

There were fears the cyber incident could impact neighbouring authorities' home sales again due to One Legal, the shared legal service between Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Gloucester and Stroud district councils, being based in Tewkesbury. However, this is not the case.

A council spokesperson added: “Due to our cyber incident, our development management team is currently unable to issue search responses for Tewkesbury Borough, but these will remain in the system and will be dealt with as soon as possible once systems have been brought online.

“Other districts are unaffected in relation to issuing their own search responses.”

Correction: An earlier version of this story incorrectly attributed the quotes to a council spokesperson, rather than a source.

Follow BBC Gloucestershire on Facebook, X and Instagram. Send your story ideas to us on email or via WhatsApp on 0800 313 4630.