The government council for Scotland’s Western Isles, known as Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, is grappling with a significant IT outage, prompting the issuance of temporary phone numbers to maintain essential services.
Furthermore, the disruption has impacted their IT system, causing substantial disruption and concern for the more than 470,000 residents living on the islands off Scotland’s western coast. The council has prioritized data restoration and security to ensure the uninterrupted delivery of critical services to the local community, and they are actively working to redirect public phone numbers to facilitate access to key services.
While the IT outage persists, experts, as reported by the BBC, suspect that a ransomware attack may be the root cause. In response, Scotland’s government is collaborating with Dell to provide Comhairle nan Eilean Siar with necessary assistance.
Dell, a computer and IT services company, maintains an incident response unit to address such incidents. However, it’s important to note that no specific cybercrime group has claimed responsibility for this attack. This situation bears resemblance to a previous ransomware attack that targeted the Scottish Association for Mental Health, causing significant disruptions to their phone and email systems for several days.
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