Tewkesbury Council's cyber incident 'was an accident

Cyber incident 'was an accident - not an attack' A cyber incident which forced a council to shut down its IT systems was not an "attack, it was an accident", a council spokesperson said.

Tewkesbury Borough Council declared a major incident on 4 September after the incident, which the authority now said was its "own systems testing its own security".

People selling or buying homes in the borough could face delays, because some of the council's property services are yet to be restored.

A council spokesperson added the incident "has been appropriately taken very seriously".

A major incident was declared when unknown user accounts were found on the council's internal systems.

The council then redeployed staff to towns across the area to ensure the most vulnerable had access to services.

The spokesperson told the Local Democracy Reporting Service : "The understanding is that within the swimming pool of cyber incidents, Tewkesbury's incident is down the shallow end.

"It seems more like an incident or accident than it does an attack.

"They (the council) have already shared with councillors that they are going to bring the systems back online."

They added: "Effectively our own systems were testing our own security."

Council leaders declared last week its systems were now safe , and no data had been stolen, but is yet to resume all of its online services.

'Other districts unaffected' When neighbouring Gloucester City Council was hit by a cyber attack in 2021, many people faced delays when trying to move home.

There were fears the cyber incident could impact neighbouring authorities' home sales again due to One Legal, the shared legal service between Cheltenham, Tewkesbury, Gloucester and Stroud district councils, being based in Tewkesbury. However, this is not the case.

A council spokesperson added: "Due to our cyber incident, our development management team is currently unable to issue search responses for Tewkesbury Borough, but these will remain in the system and will be dealt with as soon as possible once systems have been brought online.

"Other districts are unaffected in relation to issuing their own search responses."

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