Leeds City Council to spend £300k on new cyber defences to prevent attacks
Computer systems Leeds City Council will be upgraded as part of a £300,000 contract to prevent cyber attacks.
The local authority said its existing firewall technology was reaching the end of its life and needed replacing to tackle security risks.
A council report said Khipu Networks would be brought in to install updated protections against data breaches.
It said: “The council is reliant on council services being available.
“A cyber attack has the potential for all council services to be rendered inoperable
“If the firewalls were not replaced before the end of their supported lifespan there is the likelihood of them being compromised by an attacker.”
Risks included attackers obtaining personal data, leading to potential financial penalties from the Information Commissioner’s Office, the report said.
It said: “By ensuring that firewalls are in place, the council is mitigating the risk of any breach of compromise.”
Other council’s compromised by cyber breaches included Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster City Council and the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham.
The report said: “Firewall technology protects an organisation by monitoring and controlling network traffic between trusted internal systems and untrusted external networks.”
The contract to be awarded to specialist cyber security firm Khipu was set to be worth just over £313,000 over three years.
The report said: “This technology prevents cyber exploitation of the council’s systems and data and is required to replace existing end-of-life firewall devices.”