Welcome to Westminster Community Homes

Westminster Council is currently investigating a cyber security incident which has impacted the Westminster Community Homes systems. We are really sorry for the impact this may have on you.  WCC have confirmed:

 

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea (RBKC) and Westminster City Council (WCC) – who share a number of IT systems and services as part of joint arrangements – are responding to this cyber security issue.

The incident was identified quickly at both RBKC and WCC on Monday morning (November 24), and the two authorities have been working closely together and with the help of specialist cyber incident experts and the National Cyber Security Centre, with the focus on protecting systems and data, restoring systems, and maintaining critical services to the public.

 

We know a number of systems are impacted across organisations, including phone-lines. We are diverting more resources to manage this incident and monitor emails and phone lines, and the councils have invoked business continuity and emergency plans to ensure we are still delivering critical services to residents, focusing on supporting the most vulnerable.

 

We are now letting partners and residents know what has happened, we are informing the Information Commissioners' Office, in line with following all the relevant protocols. We don’t have all the answers yet, as the management of this incident is still ongoing. But we know people will have concerns, so we will be updating residents and partners further over the coming days.

At this stage it is too early to say who did this, and why, but we are investigating to see if any data has been compromised – which is standard practice. Our IT teams worked through the night yesterday and a number of successful mitigations were put in place, and we remain vigilant should there be any further incidents or issues. 

 

We apologise to stakeholders for any inconvenience, and thank them for being flexible and understanding, people may see some delays in responses and the services we provide over the coming days.

  

We are working closely with the National Cyber Security Centre and specialist partners to restore services as quickly and securely as possible. We are unable to provide an exact timeline, but restoring services securely is our top priority. We apologise for the inconvenience and appreciate your patience while we resolve this issue. 

 

For any queries please contact us by email using westminstercommunityhomes@westminster.gov.uk

 

Please read the latest update on the Council's website