Clare County Council is taking measures to deal a possible cyber-attack that has affected Microsoft’s Exchange servers.
The local authority has closed down its email system as a precaution as it investigates the matter.
It’s understood that at least two other local authorities have been affected by the same issue.
A council spokesperson said: “We believe there has been a cyber-attack. The cyber-attack was on a recently identified vulnerability in Microsoft Exchange. We have shut down our email to conduct a thorough investigation.
We are engaging with our cyber security insurance providers and technical experts to evaluate the impact of this vulnerability on Clare County Council email infrastructure,” the council has said.
It was reported earlier this week that vulnerabilities in Microsoft Exchange Server were being actively exploited in widespread attacks.
It’s understood that the attack affecting Clare County Council is the Hafnium hack which has affected over 60,000 organisations world-wide and which is alleged to have originated in China.