A London borough council has revealed it is being hit with up to 20,000 attempted cyber attacks every single day.
Hammersmith and Fulham Council in West London has gone on record to explain just how big a problem it faces in terms of its cyber security, having to deploy additional anti-phishing measures and enhanced firewalls to deal with the issue.
Despite the eye-watering daily figure, perhaps the most worrying issue is that Hammersmith and Fulham isn’t a huge outlier. Many other agencies, official bodies and businesses of a similar size have reported a similar number of attempted attacks.
Phishing was one of the most common attacks facing the council. This is where scammers use fraudulent communications (typically on email but sometimes on social media or via the telephone) to try and extort sensitive data from within an organisation.
For Hammersmith and Fulham, additional investment has been earmarked for the 2025/26 financial year, not just to improve cyber security processes and infrastructure but also train and update staff members – as they are often the most important link in the cybersecurity chain.
The council wouldn’t have to look far to see why improving defences is so important. Hackney Council was subject to a ransomware attack in October 2020 which saw personal data from both employees and residents stolen and published online.
Hackney was later rebuked by the Information Commissioner’s Office for having a “lack of proper security and processes to protect personal data”. It has quite literally paid the price for this, with the council said to have spent hundreds of thousands pounds more than originally planned to recover from the attack – according to the Local Democracy Reporting Service.
A London Councils spokesperson told the Evening Standard: “In recent years we’ve seen several boroughs across the capital subjected to major attacks, sometimes leading to considerable disruption to services and costs to the boroughs.
“All London boroughs invest in cyber security tools and processes to keep their systems safe. We also collaborate to share insights and intelligence about potential threats to maintain the smooth-running of local services.”
