A CRACK team of IT experts have been tasked with beefing up Carlisle City Council’s cyber security.

But chief executive Jason Gooding has stressed that there were “no significant risks” in terms of the authority’s exposure to online risks.

The external consultants were parachuted in as part of an audit and are expected to make several recommendations to protect the council’s computer network.

Mr Gooding said: “We have had some IT security instances that have been dealt with and managed – and we have prevented those risks becoming an issue.

“I am not talking about this to warn you there there’s some bad news coming about our IT security, but to let you know that we are onto this.

“We are challenging ourselves to make sure we understand the risks, and we will be taking action in due course.

“Had they identified some glaring holes in our IT security which needs immediate fixing I would be alerting members to that and we would be taking urgent action – that’s not the case.”

Copeland Council was crippled by the interstate hit launched before the August bank holiday of 2017 in which hackers demanded a bitcoin ransom to get access to encrypted files, leaving that authority with a major headache.

The cyber attack caused major disruption to services and is set to run up to an estimated £2m, with the council not expected to fully recover before March of this year.

Explaining why an external auditor has been commissioned rather than a staff member, Mr Gooding said it was a specialist role.

He added: “You can bet we get a Freedom of Information request asking what we have spent on consultants and people will be rolling their eyes.

“But the truth is it wouldn’t make sense for an organisation of our size to directly employ a specialist IT auditor.”

Councillor Pamela Birks, chairman of the council’s business and transformation scrutiny panel, welcomed news of the audit.

She said: “I am sure the people of Carlisle are reassured that we have this in hand and that we are keeping people’s details safe and secure.

“I am glad to see that we have taken hold of it and we have had some external input into it to actually do a review and audit.

“It is good that it is independent.”