Our data has been copied, says London borough in council cyberattack

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) has confirmed that a cyberattack affecting shared systems across three London authorities last week has resulted in data being copied from its network.

In its latest update, RBKC said it “has now obtained evidence on our systems that shows some data has been copied and then taken away.”

The council believes that the breach “only impacts historical data” and emphasized that it “still has access to this information,” though it warned that it is possible the copied material “could end up in the public domain.”

RBKC said that it was now working to determine whether the affected historic files contain “any personal or financial details of residents, customers and service users.” But cautioned that this assessment would take some time.

The council reported that it had detected unusual activity early Monday and immediately moved to shut down and isolate systems.

As reported by Cybernews, RBKC, Westminster City Council, and Hammersmith and Fulham Council were all affected after a cyber incident struck the shared IT systems used by the three London boroughs.

Hammersmith and Fulham council confirmed that it had “successfully isolated and safeguarded” its network and that there was currently no evidence that its systems had been compromised. It added, however, that some public-facing applications have been suspended as a precaution.

Westminster City Council stated that it was continuing to respond to the incident and that, although services were operational, “some disruption remains.”

RBKC, following advice from the UK’s cybercrime-fighting unit, the National Cyber Security Centre, is urging residents, customers, and service users to remain vigilant about unsolicited emails, calls, and texts.

None of the affected councils has yet named the service provider or third-party platform potentially compromised in the incident, which allowed attackers to target all three borough’s networks

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