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Three local councils in the United Kingdom continue to experience perturbation to their on-line service , a week after confirminga cyberattack had knocked some systems offline .
The council for Canterbury , Dover , and Thanet — all of which are based in the U.K. county of Kent and have a combined population of almost 500,000 residents — said last hebdomad that they were collectively investigate an unspecified “ cyber incident ” that had disrupted council taxation payment and online forms .
Questions remain about the incident , including whether personal information was accessed . Robert Davis , a spokesperson for Canterbury City Council , assure TechCrunch last hebdomad that the council ’s initial investigation suggests that no customer data was access .
However , the U.K. ’s Information Commissioner ’s Office told TechCrunch on Friday that the data governor has receive a breach write up from the three council .
“ We have received breach report forms from three Kent Councils who take form a three - elbow room partnering service : Thanet District Council , Dover District Council and Canterbury County Council , and will be induce enquiries , ” ICO interpreter Rashana Vigerstaff suppose .
TechCrunch understands that the ongoing incident is linked to EKS , or East Kent Services . EKS was typeset up by Canterbury , Dover , and Thanet in 2011 before it was outsource to Civica in 2018 , and is used by all three council to pitch a number of engineering - establish Robert William Service , include payment , benefits , and debt recovery .
TechCrunch found last week that some of Canterbury City Council ’s defrayal systems , allow for by EKS , were unavailable . These divine service remain down at the time of writing — as is EKS ’ web site , which has now been offline for at least seven days .
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TechCrunch has contacted multiple people at EKS but has not yet received a response . The company has yet to make a public statement regarding the cyberattack , the nature of which remain unknown .
According to aMastodon postfrom security investigator Kevin Beaumont , EKS ’ Pulse Secure VPN waiter is also offline , suggesting a possible tie to thewidespread exploitationof two decisive zero - twenty-four hours vulnerabilities in Ivanti ’s widely used corporate VPN convenience .
The incident go along to cause disruption for C of thousands of individual in Kent .
Davis , the spokesperson for Canterbury City Council , did not react to questions from TechCrunch sent Friday , but a notice on thecouncil ’s websitenotes that residents remain unable to “ apply for , report something or pay for most services online at the present moment ” while it continue to investigate the incident .
Dover District Council spokesperson Andy Steele also did n’t respond to TechCrunch ’s questions , but the council has also confirmed in anupdated noticethat it is “ still feel technical difficulties ” with some of its system , admit its benefits , council tax , and business rate portal . The council notes that the issues affecting its online forms have been resolve .
Thanet District Council spokesperson Clare Winter deal an updated statement with TechCrunch , which has also beenpublished on the council ’s website . “ Thanet District Council is currently limiting access to a telephone number of its online organisation , ” the statement read . “ This is a proactive decision following account of a possible security incident . ”
Canterbury and Thanet council observe in their statement that their downed IT services , which include online word form and planning applications , are not offer by Civica .
In an email to TechCrunch on Friday , Civica interpreter Fintan Hastings reiterated that Civica ’s arrangement were unaffected . Hastings said that Civica does not provide tools for monitor and managing information assets such as applications , base , in operation bringing , and IT asset , but added that Civica render the councils with gross and benefit , debt recovery , and customer divine service .
Amended the sixth paragraph mention Civica provides technology - based overhaul to the touched council .
Cyberattack targeting UK councils have on-line interruption
