Staff thanked for dealing with cyber attack
A year on from the major cyber attack which knocked out many of the internal systems at Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, chief executive Malcolm Burr has thanked staff for their efforts in trying to maintain services.
Some of the systems, such as processing planning applications, have still not fully recovered and the Comhairle gave an assurance that there was no evidence that any data stored on its servers had been published.
Police Scotland, Cyber and Fraud Centre Scotland and Scottish Government were involved in a criminal investigation in the aftermath of the attack but there is no further detail on who may have been behind the attack on the 7th November last year.
It is estimated that final bill will amount to around £1 million. A new website is in the final stages of preparation.
In a letter to employees last week, Mr Burr highlighted the resilience of staff and thanked them for their work over the last year.
“In the last year I have been asked to talk several times about cyber-attack recovery and resilience,” he said.
“These discussions have taken different forms but, on each occasion, I have highlighted one aspect of our own recovery as being key: the resilience and adaptability of Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s employees.
“Every organisation is vulnerable to the risk of cyber-attacks but not every organisation has a workforce as prepared and equipped to respond as Comhairle nan Eilean Siar.
“Thank you all for your hard work, your resilience and the support that you have given your colleagues in serving the communities of the Western Isles.”