A recent cyber attack on Oxford City Council has showcased how at risk local authorities are from cybercriminals, according to cybersecurity solution Hackuity.
The attack, which took place on 7 and 8 June, saw an unauthorised presence breach the council’s network.
“Local authorities remain high-value targets for cybercriminals,” said Sylvain Cortes, Hackuity’s VP of strategy.
“It’s a sector that is undergoing rapid digitisation to move services online and faces growing risks from attackers aiming to access sensitive data on citizens and employees.
“The digital age creates new points of vulnerability for councils and this incident comes hot on the heels of a spate of retail-sector attacks.
“It reinforces that organisations across all sectors must have the fundamental building blocks of security in place.”
According to the council, its automated security systems acted promptly but not before the attackers were able to access historical data of those who worked on Oxford City Council-administered elections between 2001 and 2002.
The council said staff may have had “some personal details accessed” and its precautionary measures to protect its system resulted in “disruption to some of our services over the last week”.
This latest cyber breach follows a spate of major cyber incidents within UK retail.
M&S faced an attack that cost the retailer £300m off of its 2025/26 profit. The Co-op, Harrods and North Face are among the other firms to have reported incidents.
Read more: Businesses turn to threat sharing to fend off hackers
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