Today, Gallagher, one of the world’s largest insurance broking, risk management and consulting services companies, publishes research based on FOI responses received from UK local authorities between August and September of this year, quantifying the scale of cyber threat faced by councils across the UK:
- Freedom of information (FOI) requests by Gallagher found that 101 UK councils had experienced an attempted cyber-attack on their IT systems since 2017. More than a third (37%) of these local authorities had experienced cyber-attacks in the first half of this year
- Responding councils experienced 263 million attacks in the first six months of 2019, equating to almost 800 attacks every hour.
- Since the beginning of 2017, 17 attacks were reported to have resulted in a loss of data or money. The financial impact of such attacks can be extensive, with one council reporting a loss of over £2 million.
- Only 34 councils currently hold a cyber-insurance policy – equivalent to just 13% of councils – that protects them from a financial loss or loss of data.
Computer Weekly have covered the story here: https://www.
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