Three boroughs confirm investigation amid service outages, disrupted phone lines, and limited online access

Two London councils are scrambling for answers after declaring a cybersecurity issue that began on Monday.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Westminster City Council (WCC) confirmed they are investigating an "incident", admitting "we don't have all the answers yet, as the management of this incident is still ongoing."

The two local authorities share IT services as part of joint agreements, with the London Borough of Hammersmith and Fulham also using these shared services.

Cybersecurity experts speaking to The Register said shared services are common across neighboring councils, but although they provide cost benefits, when one council is compromised, the shared nature of the service can open up other authorities to attacks.

According to statements released by all three authorities, the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) is supporting them with remediation efforts, protecting data, and isolating and restoring systems.

At the time of writing, RBKC's ...