Teesside council is victim of cyber attack

Calls have been made for a "serious review" of a Teesside council's IT systems after its website went down following a 'cyber-attack'.

Redcar and Cleveland Council's website was attacked on Saturday morning and remains inoperative displaying only an error message for those trying to log on.

The council says there is no evidence that any personal data has been lost and has added that it is investigating after the attack, prioritising essential services.

But the failure has led to calls for a serious review of the council's IT systems following the failure.

At a meeting of the council's Governance Committee, independent member Colin Monson, said IT security needed to be looked at as a priority.

He added:

Committee chairman, Cllr Carole Morgan, intervened saying IT had been called in over the weekend.

Steve Newton, assistant director of governance, confirmed that Cllr Morgan was correct adding that the team had worked into the early hours to try and get the council's site up and running.

He said:

A council spokesman said:

The authority has passed details to Cleveland Police, and the force has confirmed it's received a report.

The spokesman added the council had "limited capacity" for phone calls.

The Local Democracy Reporting Service asked the council to clarify if any residents' data was at risk as a result.

He said:

The reason for the attack is currently unclear, but cyber attacks are typically launched to access data, functions or other restricted areas of a computer system. Council websites are typically used by members of the public to pay council tax, report problems or view planning and licensing applications.