LGA talks on cyber insurance stall

The proposal to offer a financial safeguard against hackers for public sector organisations will not be taken forward in is current form. 

As reported by The MJ, talks with the Local Government Association on expanding existing protections offered to councils in the wake of emergencies have ‘sort of petered out’. 

Originally tabled by Jon McGinty, Chief Executive of Gloucester City Council, following a major ransomware attack in 2021, the idea was to extend the Bellwin scheme – financial aid for local governments following an incident such as flooding – to cover cyber crime. 

‘Our insurance didn’t cover the cost of rebuilding IT infrastructure. It’s such a nice market there isn’t really an appropriate cyber produce for us,’ McGinty said. 

Discussions around cyber attacks on public bodies have increased in tandem with reported incidents. However, critics argue that introducing such a scheme could lead to even more attempts to extract money from councils and other organisations as criminals would know a financial system was in place and look to exploit it. 

Read more on The MJ. 

Image: Clint Patterson / Unsplash