Islands council 'counting cost' of cyber attack

An islands council says it is still calculating the financial cost of a cyber attack last month.

Western isles local authority, Comhairle nan Eilean Siar, said it would need specialists' help to rebuild affected IT systems.

The comhairle's website was taken down and its email service was disrupted.

Chief executive Malcolm Burr said some data also remained "inaccessible" but denied it had been lost.

Mr Burr told councillors at the comhairle's policy and resources committee: “We’re counting costs at the moment."

He said the Scottish government might be asked if it could provide some technical assistance.

Mr Burr told councillors there was an "important distinction" between data being lost and inaccessible.

He said: “In terms of data recovery, that is ongoing work.

"You hear terms being used like ‘lost’, but it is all there, and it is simply that we can’t access it.

"Data recovery - that remains a possibility, and that’s obviously high priority work for the team and those who are advising us."

Story provided by local democracy reporter Peter Urpeth.