Cyberattack Disrupted West Norfolk Council Services on PCC Election Day
Summary
West Norfolk Council detected a cyberattack on 17 July while staff counted votes for a police and crime commissioner by-election. Services were briefly disrupted, but the council said the count was unaffected and investigators found no evidence of data access or theft.
Key points
- The Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk detected the incident on 17 July.
- As a precaution, the council restricted access to some services while its ICT team investigated and protected systems.
- Telephone services were restored in about two hours; website services returned shortly afterwards, and normal network service resumed the next day.
- The council said the attack did not affect the election count.
- The council reported the incident to the National Cyber Security Centre and said investigators found no evidence that data was accessed or stolen.
Article Details
- Victim Organization
- Borough Council of King's Lynn and West Norfolk
- Incident Type
- Cyber attack affecting council services; the attack type was not specified.
- Incident Date
- 2026-07-17
- Operational Impact
- Telephone calls could not be answered for approximately two hours, some website services were briefly unavailable, and some network services took longer to restore. Normal service resumed the following day. The council said the election count was not affected.
- Ransom Or Extortion
- None reported
- Claim Status
- confirmed