Council Identifies Fake Emails Author

Douglas Council says it knows who sent the emails claiming to be from leader Claire Wells.

Spoof emails were sent to media organisations claiming that an emergency meeting of the council was due to be called and that Mrs Wells was going to call a vote of no confidence in herself.

Tonight the Council has said that it has identified who sent the emails and rejected claims of a hack or other vulnerability in its IT system.

A spokesman said: ‘Douglas Borough Council can confirm that its Council Leader did not send e-mails to island media outlets about a suggested emergency meeting, nor has a vulnerability been detected in the local authority’s IT system. There has, however, been a case of “email spoofing”, where cybercriminals use deception to appear as another person.

‘These spoofed emails have, unfortunately, managed to deceive one of the targeted news providers into believing that a clearly fake email may have actually been genuine or that the Council’s system had been allegedly ‘hacked’.

 ‘Following investigation, the actual origination of the fake emails has been identified and Douglas Borough Council is receiving advice with a view to taking action. The next full meeting of the Council is due to go ahead next week as scheduled.

‘If organisations are concerned in relation to their IT security systems and possible vulnerability, they should contact the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance for advice on how to protect their systems from such attacks.’

Gef has asked the Council to identify who sent the emails, but it has not yet chosen to do so.