Statement - recent disruption to online payments

Islington Council would like to apologise for recent disruption to its online payments services, including for council tax, rent and parking.

The council’s website has been subjected to two similar cyber-attacks in recent days, each known as a Distributed Denial of Service (DDOS). The first was detected on Saturday 15 July. In response, swift action was taken by council officers to shut down relevant parts of the website, including our online payments system, in order to protect them. A further attack followed on Monday 17 July.

Cllr Andy Hull, Islington Council’s executive member for finance and resources, said:

“These were deliberate, malicious attacks on the council’s website, flooding parts of it with internet traffic in order to disrupt service. There is no reason to believe that any money or sensitive data has been lost or stolen. Nor has ransomware been used. However, we have taken precautionary measures to protect our site and apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.

“We’re working hard to get online payments back up and running as soon as we can. 

"We are now investing in additional technical defences against this type of attack, above and beyond the level of defence routinely employed by local authorities in the UK.

“We have reported these incidents to the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and are working with them to try to identify and address the source of the attacks.”

Where residents have been unable to make payments online because of the disruption, the council will extend payment deadlines.

For further information please contact:
Chris Roe, Senior Media Officer
Tel: 020 7527 8751 
Mob/out of hours: 07769 163303 
Email: chris.roe@islington.gov.uk 
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