Liverpool residents are being advised that they will not be able to use Liverpool City Council’s websites, payment systems and online services during a period of disruptive downtime which is scheduled to occur later this month. The city council is changing its internet service provider, a move which they have called “a vital piece of work” which will provide better services to residents and better value-for-money. Because of the complexity of the switchover, the Council is preparing for a disruption that could last “several hours”. The switchover has been scheduled to take place overnight on a weekend which has been specifically chosen for this purpose to minimise disruption, with updates to be delivered via the Council’s social media channels.
Liverpool City Council is not the first public agency to unexpectedly have its services disrupted, in recent years cyber attacks have been responsible for service outages with various economic and political ramifications. Last year, Johannesburg City Council was hit by a ransomware attack, which left the South African city without access to a range of public services and prevented residents from accessing online facilities such as bill payments. The disruption also triggered a policing crisis as the ransomware attack paralysed many of their systems.
Given how increasingly interconnected our lives have become, it’s important for providers of online services to have a robust strategy in place to ensure that its users don’t experience any unintended consequences of scheduled shutdowns. The recent global pandemic has highlighted how much more reliant we have become on online services, and an interruption to our internet access, even momentarily, can have wide-reaching implications on our daily routine.
To help prevent downtime and keep critical services available, companies need to work with experienced professionals responsible for maintaining the security and stability of their online platforms. Ensuring that the strategy can withstand any disruptive circumstances ensures all subsequently defined risks and mitigations are engineered to a standard de-risking impacts on various dimensions of availability, performance and functionality. The critical nature of keeping online services available to the public should be a key factor in any decision-making concerning who provides such services to the public
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