Mike Maddison, CEO of NCC Group said
“Cyber attacks are a daily reality for organisations globally. A recent NCC Group survey of over a thousand individuals with responsibility for cyber security revealed that 45% of respondents had experienced a cyber security breach in the last 12 months. NCC Group has recorded 183 ransomware incidents impacting the public sector in 2025 so far, with the volume consistently high across the year.
“NCC Group has worked on cyber incidents, including the British Library, universities and other local councils, and even when all best practices are followed, it can sometimes take between 12 and 18 months to fully restore services. The response from the three boroughs was fast and effective, which is key. NCC Group's Digital Forensic and Incident Response team were on calls immediately, and within two hours were on site.
“NCC Group has been working with the councils to resolve the incident. But the restoration of IT services takes far longer than people might assume. This is because each part of the network must be rebuilt in a safe and secure way, with constant scanning to check that it won’t cause further operational or security issues.
“The councils may need to deliver services for a period of months without the systems they are used to; but we’ll be doing our best to keep that time as short as possible. Creating a more secure digital future requires incident response strategies that prioritise resilience and enable rapid, coordinated recovery.”