A cyber attack carried out in the early hours of Sunday, 19 July, has left several services at the Algarve Regional Coordination and Development Commission (CCDR Algarve), responsible for bridging central Government with local municipalities, temporarily unavailable.
In a statement issued to newsrooms on Monday, 20 July, the public body said that the incident had affected its IT systems, resulting in disruptions to a number of services, including institutional email and communications.
"CCDR Algarve wishes to inform the public that, following this IT incident affecting its systems, some services are temporarily unavailable, namely communications and access to institutional email," the statement read.
According to the regional authority, the attack was detected over the weekend after an unauthorised external access to its systems was identified. Security protocols were activated immediately in response.
The commission said it had carried out the required procedures for analysing, responding to and reporting the incident to the relevant authorities. It also implemented measures to contain and assess the breach, with the aim of mitigating any potential impact.
The situation is being monitored by the competent authorities, CCDR Algarve's IT services, and specialist technical support teams, which are working to restore normal operations as quickly as possible.
The public body has appealed for the public's understanding and said that further information will be released once there are significant developments in the investigation.
Source: CCDR
Photo credit: Archive
