Tewkesbury Borough Council closes website after cyber attack

Tewkesbury Town Council confirmed this morning (5 September) that it had been the victim of a cyber attack.

Although the cause and cause of the attack are not yet known, the Council would like to reassure local people, particularly vulnerable members of the community, that they will continue to receive the essential services they require.

Yesterday afternoon, suspicious activity was detected on the Council's systems. Following internal investigations, it was decided at 4:10 p.m. to shut down the website.

Alistair Cunningham, Chief Executive of Tewkesbury Borough Councilinformed local media and wanted to reassure people that it was not the attack that brought down the website. It was the council's decision to protect data and prevent further damage.

The investigations to date have shown that there has been no loss of data in the systems. And partner organizations have confirmed that their own systems are secure.

The council has notified the National Cyber ​​Security Centre (NCSC) of the attack. It has also declared a major incident and is working with partners including health, emergency services, the county council and the voluntary sector through the Local Resilience Forum (LRF) to ensure essential services continue to reach the people who need them most.

The council said it was meeting with partners several times a day and preparing a recovery plan.

Alistair Cunningham said: “Our priority is to manage and contain the incident while ensuring we can continue to care for our most vulnerable residents. We are therefore asking residents and businesses to only contact us if absolutely necessary.”

“We hope to be able to offer some limited services soon. Our phone line is open. Our staff will be on hand in Bishop's Cleeve, Churchdown and Brockworth to support people.”

Locations are:

• Bishop's Cleeve Parish Council until 3pm

• Churchdown police bus in Tesco car park until 4pm

• Brockworth Community Centre on Court Road until 4pm

Telephone: (01684) 295010

Mr Cunningham said the key was to find out when the attack took place. The council has backup systems that will be clean before the date of the attack. Once it is clear when the attack took place, it can go back to that date and rebuild its systems from there.

The home page of the Tewkesbury Borough Council website remains active as an information resource, but it is not possible to search for detailed information such as planning applications or minutes of council meetings.

Waste and recycling services are operated by partner organization Ubico and continue to operate as usual.

Gloucester City Council fell victim to a sophisticated cyberattack in 2021. The council had to rebuild all of its servers following the attack, with the total cost of dealing with it approaching £1 million.