Cyber Attack Disrupts King’s Lynn Council Services During Election Count
The Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk experienced a cyber attack on 17 July, coinciding with the vote count for the Norfolk police and crime commissioner by-election. The incident temporarily disrupted council services, including phone systems and website access, though officials confirmed no data was stolen or accessed.
As a precaution, the council restricted access to some services while its ICT team isolated the threat. Telephone systems were restored within two hours, and most website functions resumed shortly after, though some network services took until the following day to fully recover. The attack did not impact the election results, which saw Reform UK candidate Colin Sutton elected as police commissioner.
The National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) was notified, though no evidence linked the attack to hostile state actors. The council assessed the data protection risk as low, as the incident did not involve sensitive financial or personal information. This follows a separate cyber attack on the Department for Education (DfE) earlier in the week, where hackers obtained 607,000 records, underscoring growing threats to UK public sector organizations.
Recent government data reveals that 24% of further education institutions report weekly cyber attacks, while over half of schools experienced breaches in the past year. The NCSC has previously warned that three-quarters of attacks on critical UK services are attributed to state-backed actors.
Source: https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c4gk85ey55yo
Borough Council of Kings Lynn & West Norfolk cybersecurity rating report: https://www.rankiteo.com/company/borough-council-of-kings-lynn-west-norfolk
"id": "BOR1785479179",
"linkid": "borough-council-of-kings-lynn-west-norfolk",
"type": "Cyber Attack",
"date": "7/2026",
"severity": "25",
"impact": "1",
"explanation": "Attack without any consequences"{'affected_entities': [{'industry': 'Public Sector',
'location': 'King’s Lynn, West Norfolk, UK',
'name': 'Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West '
'Norfolk',
'type': 'Government'}],
'data_breach': {'data_exfiltration': 'No',
'number_of_records_exposed': '0',
'personally_identifiable_information': 'No',
'sensitivity_of_data': 'Low (no sensitive financial or '
'personal information involved)'},
'date_detected': '2024-07-17',
'date_publicly_disclosed': '2024-07-17',
'date_resolved': '2024-07-18',
'description': 'The Borough Council of King’s Lynn and West Norfolk '
'experienced a cyber attack on 17 July, coinciding with the '
'vote count for the Norfolk police and crime commissioner '
'by-election. The incident temporarily disrupted council '
'services, including phone systems and website access, though '
'officials confirmed no data was stolen or accessed.',
'impact': {'data_compromised': 'None',
'downtime': 'Phone systems: 2 hours, Website: shortly after, Some '
'network services: until the following day',
'operational_impact': 'Temporary disruption of council services',
'systems_affected': ['phone systems',
'website access',
'some network services']},
'references': [{'date_accessed': '2024-07-17',
'source': 'Cyber Incident Description'}],
'regulatory_compliance': {'regulatory_notifications': 'NCSC notified'},
'response': {'containment_measures': 'Restricted access to some services, ICT '
'team isolated the threat',
'law_enforcement_notified': 'National Cyber Security Centre '
'(NCSC) notified',
'recovery_measures': 'Phone systems restored within two hours, '
'website functions resumed shortly after, '
'network services fully recovered by the '
'following day'},
'title': 'Cyber Attack Disrupts King’s Lynn Council Services During Election '
'Count',
'type': 'Cyber Attack'}