Title

CRIME

Russian hackers accessed private data, council says

Gloucester City Council has warned residents that some personal information may have been stolen by Russian hackers.

Gloucester City Council has warned residents that some personal information may have been stolen by Russian hackers.

The Cyber attack in December 2021 damaged the council's network and online services.

An investigation by the council and cyber incident response experts concluded that while some personal information ‘may have been taken' criminals have not published anything and are unlikely to in the future.

Seven Russian cyber criminals have been sanctioned by the UK and US Government's in relation to this and other incidents.

Gloucester's managing director, Jon McGinty, said: ‘I share the annoyance of the public that we were targeted in this way; this criminal group targeted our council among other private and public sector organisations to disrupt our public services in an attempt to extort a ransom payment from the council.

‘I am sorry for any concern this announcement may cause residents and members of the public, but would like to emphasise this occurred in December 2021 and, based on advice received from our national law enforcement partners, the council believes it is unlikely that any information taken will be released in the future.'

CRIME

Scrooge Says: Bah Humbug to Local Elections

By Colin Copus | 22 December 2025

Labour said nothing about LGR in its manifesto and, as well as moving to create 'huge' new unitaries, ministers have made councils responsible for sticking t...

CRIME

Reed says councils should not be offering 'full-time pay for part-time work'

By Dan Peters | 22 December 2025

Local authorities should not be offering full-time pay for part-time work, communities secretary Steve Reed has told council leaders.

CRIME

Giving the public a seat at the table on AI decision

By Kathy Peach | 19 December 2025

Nesta’s research proves that when people are given more context about specific AI tools and their use cases, the public’s fears about AI can transform into m...

CRIME

People, purpose – and power

By Ellen Care | 19 December 2025

Five pioneering councils have teamed up with Collaborate CIC to share insight, solve problems collectively and build their influence – all with a common goal...

Popular articles by William Eichler