Municipal Cyber Breach Ripples Across Europe As Councils Shut Systems

Updated: November 30, 2025 20:45

Image Source : Cyber Management Alliance

A major cyberattack has disrupted municipal networks in Europe, with multiple London borough councils shutting down systems and phone lines while emergency plans were activated. Wider threat intelligence points to heightened targeting of public authorities and critical infrastructure across the region, underscoring the urgency of resilience and rapid incident response.

Incident Overview And Impact

At least three London councils reported ongoing disruption after a cyberattack, prompting network shutdowns and a pivot to emergency service continuity. Authorities cited a focus on protecting systems and data, restoring services, and maintaining critical public functions such as housing and social services, while withholding attribution details during the active response. Broader European threat insights signal simultaneous pressure on public authorities and critical infrastructure, with energy alerts and supplier breaches forcing manual operations in transport hubs—evidence of spillover risks beyond city IT estates.

Response, Risk And Regional Context

Municipal operators initiated containment, communications triage, and critical-service prioritization as phone lines and portals were taken offline. Sector advisories have elevated vigilance across European public bodies amid trends of threat actors dwelling undetected and recruiting insiders, increasing the chances of lateral movement and data exfiltration before detection. The month’s roundup of incidents across public authorities and vendors reinforces the need for hardened access controls and rapid recovery runbooks in local government environments.

Key Highlights

Multiple London borough councils, including Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster, and Hammersmith & Fulham, reported service disruption and network shutdowns during the attack.

Authorities emphasized protecting systems and data, restoring services, and maintaining essential public functions amid ongoing investigations.

Threat intelligence for November flags heightened targeting of public authorities and critical infrastructure across Europe, including energy and transport alerts.

Roundups show rising supply-chain and vendor breaches affecting public bodies, increasing downstream exposure for municipalities.

Insider recruitment by ransomware gangs and long dwell times raise the risk of stealthy compromise in city IT estates.

Manual fallback operations at European transport hubs illustrate the operational impact of supplier-side compromises.

Active attribution was withheld; councils avoided naming groups while containment and restoration progressed.

Advisories urge reinforced identity, segmentation, and incident recovery preparedness across municipal networks.

Sources: TechCrunch; Brigantia; DNV Cyber