Councils in the UK are dealing with thousands of attempted cyber-attacks every day, with 2.3 million attacks being detected so far this year.

A freedom of information (FoI) request from risk management firm Gallagher investigated the scale of cyber-crime against UK councils, with 161 local authorities sharing information.

Gallagher said that, based on the proportion of councils who shared data on cyber-attacks, the size of the problem is likely to be significantly greater.

Scaling up these figures to reflect response rates, the true number of attacks across all councils is estimated to be more than 11 million in 2022.

While most cyber-attacks are intercepted by IT security put in place by local authorities, councils revealed that collectively they had paid out over £10 million over the past five years due to cyber-crime. This includes monies lost to hackers, legal costs, and fines.

Phishing attacks are by far the biggest cyber threat to councils, with three-quarters (75%) stating that it was the most common type of attack that had been attempted against them. Distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks, which attempts to disrupt web traffic or services by overwhelming servers, were the second most common attempt type – ranking as the top threat this year for 6% of councils.

Increased digitisation during the pandemic has increased the volume of UK cyber-crime. This has affected both the public and private sectors.

Gallagher research revealed that 15% of UK business owners say cyber-crime is one of their biggest risks, specifically driven by the increased reliance on technology post-pandemic.

As a result of this growing risk, in the last 12 months around half of councils (52%) have needed to employ an external expert to give them advice on how to mitigate the risk of cyber-attacks.

Nearly nine in 10 councils (85%) said they have increased their cybersecurity to help cope with attempted attacks, but despite these increased efforts to help guard against the growing threat, currently only 23% of councils currently hold a cyber-insurance policy to protect against the potential consequences.

Commenting on the findings, Johnty Mongan, Head of Cyber Risk Management at Gallagher, said: “Criminals unfortunately only know too well that cyber-attacks can cripple systems and with many councils increasingly servicing local people’s needs digitally, they simply cannot afford to experience downtime.

“It is positive to see that councils are recognising this threat and looking to employ external experts to help prevent cyber-attacks – risk management and putting in the right security is absolutely key and external experts are best placed to advise what the most up to measures are.”

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At the height of the pandemic in June last year, an FoI analysis revealed a major problem with cybersecurity breaches across UK councils plagued by a lack of funding and security.

Redscan’s ‘Disjointed and under-resourced: Cybersecurity across UK councils’ report analysed data collected in the FoI responses from more than 200 councils in England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland.

Data suggested that as well as councils struggling to deal with services disruptions due to cyber-attacks, they are also woefully under-prepared for current and future security challenges.

Tim Devine, Managing Director for Government, Housing, Education & Public Sector at Gallagher, said: “It is important to have a plan in place should the worst happen. With so many attacks happening every day, it only takes one error to cause significant problems.

“The risk in terms of associated costs and reputational damage as a result of cyber threats means having specialist cyber insurance in place should be a key consideration but is by no means the only consideration for those wishing to mitigate the risks of an attack.”

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