17 London councils don’t have a cyber insurance policy in place to provide support in the event of a cyber attack on their IT systems.
That's according to cyber security firm ProLion, which sent Freedom of Information (FOI) requests to each of London’s 32 borough councils plus the City of London in December 2021. In their responses, 17 local authorities admitted they are not properly insured against the risk of a cyber incident.
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What's more, five councils refused to say whether or not they have in place a cyber insurance policy, citing Section 31 of the Freedom of Information Act which exempts the disclosure of information that could “prejudice the prevention or detection of crime”.
One council said that disclosing the information relating to cyber insurance could lead to an increased risk by encouraging an attack, said ProLion. Other councils stated that the disclosure of such information would give cyber criminals insight into possible vulnerabilities, or embolden them to attack those most at risk.
Eight councils were ambiguous or unclear in their response to the FOI, while three councils didn’t respond to the request at all.
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“Ransomware attacks have continued to rapidly grow both in frequency and sophistication,” said Steve Arlin, VP Sales in UK, Americas & APAC at ProLion. “The situation demanded action a long time ago, and the issue is now so large that businesses can’t afford to be reactive in their approach to cybersecurity.”
ProLion pointed out that organisations of all sizes and sectors are viable targets for opportunistic cyber criminals. However, the public sector is likely to hold more sensitive data, including council tax, medical records, and financial information. “This might explain why they are a preferred target and more likely to pay any ransom demands,” stated the company.
Arlin added that for organisations like borough councils, the risk of large volumes of sensitive personal data falling into the wrong hands means that it could face huge UK GDPR related fines as a result.
ProLion also found that the research provided insights on councils’ approach to cyber security. One representative for a council said that they discovered the cyber insurance market to be very challenging and therefore difficult to obtain competitive quotations. They added that they are currently looking at both insurance and a cyber consultancy review, including self-assessments as a solution to their cyber risks.
