Cyber attack bill could top £1 million

The cost of the cyber attack which hit Gloucester City Council has risen to £787,000 so far and civic chiefs cannot rule out it will top £1 million.

Benefit payments, planning applications, house sales were all delayed after hackers linked to Russia compromised Gloucester City Council’s IT systems in December last year.

The city authority had to rebuild all of its servers and after malware, which is software designed to disrupt, damage or gain unauthorised access to a computer made it onto their systems.

Council officers have since been working to restore services back to normal but the cost continues to rise.

Liberal Democrat group leader Jeremy Hilton (LD, Kingsholm and Wotton) asked council chiefs on September  29 how much it has cost so far to restore the IT systems and what the estimated final bill will be.

“Every time I ask the question about the costs of the cyber attack recovery, the cost rises more and more. It now stands at a whopping £787,000. Once again you are unable to give me the final estimate.

“Can you reassure members of the council that the final bill will not be more than £1m?”

Deputy leader Hanna Norman (C, Quedgley Fieldcourt) told the council meeting she could not give that assurance.

She said all parties involved in the recovery are doing it in the most cost effective manner as they are spending Gloucester taxpayers money.

“I can give you the assurance that every penny we spend is scrutinised and we are making decisions based on value for money and what is right operationally for this authority and therefore Gloucester residents.”

The Conservative councillor explained that the council had spent £787,000 spent to date, £142,000 in capital works and £645,000 in revenue costs.

“The council received £250,000 in grant funding and has placed £380,000 into a cyber reserve. These costs include an element of IT improvement works which the council would have had to undertake in the future.

“We do not have a final estimate, however costs are been kept to a minimum whilst still delivering the security the council requires.”

By Carmelo Garcia – Local Democracy Reporter

Gloucester News Centre – http://gloucesternewscentre.co.uk