Over 13,000 email addresses have been stolen from Edinburgh City Council’s website following a ‘malicious’ cyber attack.
Some 13,134 people have now been contacted by the town hall after their email addresses were leaked during the database attack.
A total of 400 email addresses belonging to council staff were also obtained in the assault.
However a council spokesperson denied that any other personal information had been stolen during the incident.
Oh, that's not helpful... Email addresses, including mine, copied after cyber attack on Edinburgh Council's website. pic.twitter.com/HEuYwBNNOt
— Swivel Eyed Broon (@Mr_Mark_Brown) July 7, 2015
An Edinburgh City Council spokesperson said: ‘This was a malicious cyber attack on the council's website which is hosted in a UK data centre. It was dealt with swiftly and at no point were any council services affected.
‘We are contacting everyone who has been affected to inform them of the incident and offer them advice and support. We have reassured individuals that the only details that have been accessed are their email addresses.
‘The Information Commissioner's Office has been informed and preventative measures have been taken by the web service providers.
‘We want to reassure the public the ongoing security of our website is critically important, and we continue to work with our service providers to ensure that the risks associated with attacks are dealt with.’
