THE WEEK IN East Bristol & North East Somerset 10th August 2022
Issue 742
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Disruption for thousands of tenants after cyber attack Housing association Bromford, which owns 8,500 homes in South Gloucestershire, has been keeping customers updated after “malicious attempts” to access its systems. The group, which has a total of 45,000 homes in central and south west England, said it was forced to shut down all of its technology, including what it uses to communicate with customers and interact with suppliers, following the cyber attack. Emergency calls only were being taken for several days after the aftermath of the attack on 20th July, with Bromford apologising for missed appointments and its
limited service. Although Bromford has found no evidence that the hackers were successful, or evidence of any data breach, tenants are reminded that they should always be aware of the threat of potential phone or email scams. In the most recent update on its website, on 4th August, Bromford said it was rebooking any missed appointments, but things were still not back to normal: “We aren’t able to take new non-emergency repairs just yet and our lettings service isn’t fully operational.” This week Dan Goodall, Bromford's chief information officer, told The Week In: “We have been opening up our
Another charity shop for Keynsham? There is a question mark over the future of one of Keynsham’s High Street’s best-known shops, Church’s Newsagents. Adverts have appeared online for a manager and volunteers to work at the PDSA shop at 60 High Street, which is currently Church’s. On Monday PDSA regional operations controller Ian McFarlane told us: “We are currently exploring the possibility of opening a PDSA charity shop in Keynsham which will help us to fund our vital work, providing lifesaving veterinary treatments across our 48 Pet Hospitals, including the local service in Bristol.” We have also asked Church’s for a comment.
Also in this week’s issue
Seeing red over cycle lane changes in Keynsham . . . page 2
Making the Railway Path safer for cyclists & walkers . . . page 3
systems in a safe manner so we can return to our normal ways of working and most of our services are now as they should be.
“Our neighbourhood coaches, income colleagues and support workers have continued to work in their communities and remain available for customers to contact via phone for any advice or support they may need. Customers are able to make payments and can contact us via the Live Chat on our website. "Taking the step of isolating ourselves while we investigate the incident has regrettably caused some disruption to our services, but we have been rebooking any appointments we missed and aim to have completed that soon. "We would like to offer our thanks to all our customers and partners for their continued patience." Meanwhile South Gloucestershire Council has tightened its own security in the wake of the attack. This week a council spokesperson told us: “We take our cyber security seriously and are constantly monitoring and updating our security systems to protect ourselves and our schools from malicious, cyber-attacks. “We share information between partners regarding potential threats and have implemented additional phishing countermeasures and monitoring protocols after a recent, external attack was reported to us.”
Death of former South Glos Council leader . . . page 5
Fighting pollution in the River Avon . . . page 7