(MENAFN) Authorities in west London have urged local residents to remain “extra vigilant” after a cyber-attack compromised data from three borough councils, officials confirmed.

The Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea, which serves roughly 147,500 residents, reported that certain information was copied from its systems during an attack earlier this week.

The council stated that it believes the breach involves “historical data” but is still investigating whether any personal or financial details of residents, customers, or service users were affected.

“With advice from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), we are encouraging all residents, customers and service users to be extra vigilant when called, emailed or sent text messages,” the council said.

The incident impacted Kensington and Chelsea, Westminster City Council, and the neighboring borough of Hammersmith and Fulham. Westminster confirmed that the cyber-attack disrupted shared IT systems across the three authorities, including phone lines, and said it was collaborating with the NCSC to ensure essential services continued.

Hammersmith and Fulham stated that it was “working around the clock” to restore its systems. The borough added that it is cooperating with the National Crime Agency, London Metropolitan Police, and NCSC to track down those responsible, and warned that at least two weeks of “significant disruption” are expected while systems are brought back online.

Reports note that public institutions and businesses across the UK have experienced a sharp increase in ransomware incidents in recent years. In 2020, a ransomware attack on Hackney Council encrypted 440,000 files, prompting a formal reprimand from the country’s data protection authority.

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