MOST of the city council’s main service portals are now back online, following the cyber incident that forced the council to shut down its systems on 7 March.
My Account – which provides access to a range of council services 24/7, including waste and recycling, school admissions, birth registration appointments and licensing – is now up and running, with the portals used for planning applications and parking permits also available again.
The council’s leisure centres are now operating as normal, with bookings able to be made online, and Homechoice – the portal used to bid for council housing - has also reopened.
Computers and WiFi are also available again at the city’s libraries, while almost all of the council’s 5,000 staff who have email addresses are now back online and contactable by email and phone.
Customer service lines for children and adults’ social care, housing options and homelessness, and electoral services are now also back up and running, while the council’s Customer Service Centre on Granby Street – which continues to open on Tuesdays and Thursdays – will be operating normally from next week.
Andrew Shilliam, the council’s director of corporate services, said: “We’re pleased that most of our online service portals and customer service lines are now up and running again.
“Next week, I hope to report that the remaining phone lines have been restored and that we’re making progress on dealing with a backlog of emails and requests.
“We’re very sorry for the inconvenience caused by the cyber incident and want to thank people for their patience while we restore our systems. I’d also like to thank all of our partners in the city who have supported us as we deal with this incident.”
The council is not yet able to say whether any data has been breached as a result of the cyber incident. A criminal investigation is ongoing.
Cyber incidents – which cause significant and ongoing disruption to an organisation’s networks and systems – are increasingly frequent, with many large organisations, including other local authorities, experiencing similar disruption in recent years.