Glasgow City Council still working to restore services three weeks after cyber attack

Glasgow City Council is still working to restore some of its online services three weeks on from a cyber attack.

The local authority’s ICT supplier CGI discovered malicious activity on servers managed by a third-party early in the morning of June 19.

Servers where malicious activity was discovered were isolated to protect the wider network, but taking them offline disrupted a number of day-to-day digital services.

Residents are still unable to pay parking and bus lane penalty charges online, however these can be paid over the phone.

People who need replacement birth, marriage and death certificates also can’t order these online currently. The council has advised many older certificates are available from other registrar offices, and it has “put in place arrangements to order more recent certificates by email”.

A temporary service for members of the public looking for property enquiry certificates has been set up as the online search is unavailable.

However, the council’s public access planning portal, which shows planning applications and allows representations on them, is up and running again.

Residents are once again able to book appointments with registrars and the council’s revenues and benefits team and Strathclyde Pension Fund members can access their online accounts again.

An online form allowing Freedom of Information requests is also available again.

The council said: “Wherever possible, we have put in place alternative ways to access services on a temporary basis.

“We are also actively working to safely restore the affected services in new locations, with several of the highest priority applications now restored.”

Independent experts have completed a forensic examination of the affected servers, and the council is awaiting a full analysis of their work.

So far, investigations have not found any evidence of data being stolen, the council has said, and no council financial systems have been affected in the attack, with no details of bank accounts or credit/debit cards processed by those systems being compromised.

Glasgow City Council is working with Police Scotland, the Scottish Cyber Co-ordination Centre, the National Cyber Security Centre and security experts brought in by CGI to investigate the attack.