Three native councils in the UK proceed to expertise disruption to their on-line providers, per week after confirming a cyberattack had knocked some systems offline.
The councils for Canterbury, Dover, and Thanet — all of that are primarily based within the U.Ok. county of Kent and have a mixed inhabitants of just about 500,000 residents — mentioned final week that they have been collectively investigating an unspecified “cyber incident” that had disrupted council tax funds and on-line types.
Questions stay concerning the incident, together with whether or not private knowledge was accessed. Robert Davis, a spokesperson for Canterbury Metropolis Council, advised TechCrunch final week that the council’s preliminary investigation means that no buyer knowledge was accessed.
Nonetheless, the U.Ok.’s Data Commissioner’s Workplace advised TechCrunch on Friday that the information regulator has acquired a breach report from the three councils.
“We have received breach report forms from three Kent Councils who form a three-way partnering service: Thanet District Council, Dover District Council and Canterbury County Council, and will be making enquiries,” ICO spokesperson Rashana Vigerstaff mentioned.
TechCrunch understands that the continuing incident is linked to EKS, or East Kent Providers. EKS was arrange by Canterbury, Dover, and Thanet in 2011 earlier than it was outsourced to Civica in 2018, and is utilized by all three councils to ship various IT and HR providers, together with funds, advantages, and debt restoration.
TechCrunch discovered final week that a few of Canterbury Metropolis Council’s cost programs, supplied by EKS, have been unavailable. These providers stay down on the time of writing — as is EKS’ web site, which has now been offline for not less than seven days.
TechCrunch has contacted a number of individuals at EKS however has not but acquired a response. The corporate has but to make a public assertion relating to the cyberattack, the character of which stays unknown.
In response to a Mastodon post from safety researcher Kevin Beaumont, EKS’ Pulse Safe VPN server can also be offline, suggesting a doable hyperlink to the widespread exploitation of two important zero-day vulnerabilities in Ivanti’s broadly used company VPN equipment.
The incident continues to trigger disruption for a whole lot of hundreds of people in Kent.
Davis, the spokesperson for Canterbury Metropolis Council, didn’t reply to questions from TechCrunch despatched Friday, however a discover on the council’s website notes that residents stay unable to “apply for, report something or pay for most services online at the moment” whereas it continues to analyze the incident.
Dover District Council spokesperson Andy Steele additionally didn’t reply to TechCrunch’s questions, however the council has additionally confirmed in an updated notice that it’s “still experiencing technical difficulties” with a few of its programs, together with its advantages, council tax, and enterprise charges portal. The council notes that the problems affecting its on-line types have been resolved.
Thanet District Council spokesperson Clare Winter shared an up to date assertion with TechCrunch, which has additionally been published on the council’s website. “Thanet District Council is currently limiting access to a number of its online systems,” the assertion reads. “This is a proactive decision following reports of a potential security incident.”
Canterbury and Thanet councils observe of their statements that their downed IT providers, which embody on-line types and planning functions, will not be supplied by Civica.
In an e mail to TechCrunch on Friday, Civica spokesperson Fintan Hastings reiterated that Civica’s programs have been unaffected. Hastings mentioned that Civica doesn’t present instruments for monitoring and managing data belongings resembling functions, infrastructure, operational supply, and IT belongings, however added that Civica offers the councils with revenues and advantages, debt restoration, and buyer providers.
