The Tewkesbury Council cyber incident was an accident

A cyber incident that forced a council to shut down its IT systems was not an “attack but an accident,” a council spokesman said.

Tewkesbury Borough Council declared the incident a serious incident on September 4. The authority now stated that it was “their own systems testing their own security”.

Selling or buying a home in the district may experience delays as some of the municipality's real estate services have not yet been restored.

A council spokesman added that the incident had been taken “appropriately seriously”.

A Major disaster situation was declared when unknown user accounts were found on the Council's internal systems.

The council then deployed staff to towns across the area to ensure that the most vulnerable people had access to services.

The spokesman told the Local Democracy Reporting Service: “It is believed that the Tewkesbury incident is at the shallow end of the scale compared to other cyber incidents.

“It appears to be an incident or accident rather than an attack.

“They (the council) have already informed council members that they will bring the systems back online.”

They added: “In fact, our own systems have put our own security to the test.”

Council leaders said last week that their systems were now safeand no data was stolen, but all online services have yet to resume.

When neighboring Gloucester City Council was the target of a cyberattack in 2021, many people faced delays in their move.

There were fears that the cyber incident could again affect neighbouring authorities' house sales as One Legal, the joint legal service for Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Gloucester and Stroud district councils, is based in Tewkesbury. However, this is not the case.

A council spokesperson added: “Due to our cyber incident, our development management team are currently unable to issue search requests for the Tewkesbury district. However, these remain in the system and will be processed as quickly as possible once systems are online.

“Other districts are not affected by this with regard to the publication of their own search responses.”