Cyber attack 'could mean the loss of 30 years of historical documents'

Comhairle nan Eilean Siar suffered a suspected ransomware attack on Tuesday, November 7.

A Stornoway councillor has voiced concerns that the cyber attack on the Comhairle’s IT systems in early November, which left the system inaccessible, could mean the loss of 30 years of archive and historical document digitisation work by the authority’s museums and libraries.

Stornoway South councillor Cllr Frances Murray raised the issue at a meeting of the Comhairle’s Education, Sport and Children’s Services Committee on Tuesday. 

A spokesperson for the Comhairle said: “The interim results of the forensic investigation following the cyber-attack on Tuesday, November 7, has established that data stored on Comhairle nan Eilean Siar’s operational and backup servers cannot be accessed. 

“There is currently no indication that any data has been extracted from the server or published. 

“The Comhairle is working with Police Scotland, Scottish Government and the National Cyber Security Centre to establish the impact of this incident. This is an ongoing investigation into a criminal act.”

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