Cyberattack Cripples Glasgow City Council’s Online Services

Glasgow City Council is grappling with significant disruption to its online services following a sophisticated cyberattack that began on June 19, 2025. The incident, which originated from “malicious activity” detected on servers managed by a third-party supplier to the council’s ICT provider CGI, has forced numerous critical digital platforms offline, leaving residents struggling to access essential services.

While the full extent of the breach is still under investigation, the council is operating on the precautionary presumption that customer data related to unavailable web forms may have been exfiltrated. This has prompted the council to alert the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) and issue a strong warning to citizens to be vigilant against potential phishing attempts and fraudulent communications.

Among the myriad of services affected are online planning applications, payment and appeal portals for parking penalty notices, booking appointments with city registrars, reporting school absences, and accessing the Strathclyde Pension Fund online portal. Even routine functions like viewing bin collection calendars have been impacted, underscoring the widespread nature of the disruption. North Lanarkshire Council, which relies on Glasgow for processing parking fines, has also reported being affected.

“Glasgow City Council apologises for the anxiety and inconvenience this incident and the necessary response to it will undoubtedly cause,” a council statement read. While reassuring the public that no financial systems or banking details have been compromised, the council stressed that they would never request sensitive information like passwords or bank details via email.

The ongoing investigation is a collaborative effort involving Police Scotland, the Scottish Cyber Coordination Centre (SC3), and the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). Cybersecurity experts are working tirelessly to assess the scope of the breach, contain the threat, and restore affected systems. The incident highlights the growing vulnerability of public sector organizations to cyberattacks, particularly those stemming from complex supply chain dependencies.

This attack on Glasgow City Council is the latest in a series of cyber incidents to hit Scottish local authorities in recent months, following similar disruptions in Edinburgh and West Lothian councils in May. As recovery efforts continue, citizens are advised to directly contact the council through verified channels for any urgent service needs and to report suspicious communications to Police Scotland. The long road to full restoration of services is expected to cause ongoing inconvenience for residents across Glasgow.