Scots council unable to access vital data after being targeted by hackers

dailyrecord.co.uk:

A Scottish council is still unable to access some of its data after a cyber attack locked staff out of operational and back-up servers.

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar (Western Isles Council) was targeted by hackers on Tuesday November 7, in what is alleged to be a ransomware attack, where a network is infiltrated and sensitive data stolen.The council confirmed today Monday, November 20, that the interim results of a forensic investigation found data stored on the council's servers remains inaccessible.The probe was led by Police Scotland in conjunction with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) and the Scottish Government, alongside the council's IT team.The team was eventially able to access the council's servers, but not the stored data.The council says it will continue to engage with and seek advice from experts to try and mitigate the impact of the incident.The council also stated there is nothing to indicate that any of its data has been extracted from its server or published, and pledged that they would inform anyone impacted should the situation change.A second priority, the council said, is to rebuild operations and ensure the continued delivery of services remains to those in the community.The local authority has created a management team to lead on the response to the incident moving forward, and said it will communicate its impact through issuing regular updates.Get the latest news sent straight to your messages by joining our WhatsApp community today.You'll receive daily updates on breaking news as well as the top headlines across Scotland.No one will be able to see who is signed up and no one can send messages except the Daily Record team.All you have to do is click here if you're on mobile, select 'Join