Following a cyber attack that caused operational problems, the city council of Leicester City, England, is still struggling with street lights that fail to turn off.
Beaumont Leys resident Roger Ewens was among those who noticed that street lights in Leicester were lit day and night.
“I noticed along Anstey Lane everyone is on one side but on the other,” he said.
After contacting the city council for a reason, Ewens was told that the cyber attack the city council had suffered was affecting the “central management system”, causing the streetlights to “behave abnormally”.
This latest development in the fallout from the cyber attacks worries locals due to the amount of energy used by the lights, which is likely driving up the cost of electricity. Ewens was told in an email that the the light problem should be solved by the end of the first week of May.
A city council spokesperson said it was aware of the problem, which it attributed to a recent cyber attack. Because the city had to do it too turn off computer systemsis unable to “remotely identify faults in the street lighting system”.
“The default mode for failures is for the lights to remain on to ensure that roads do not remain completely unlit and become a safety issue,” the spokesperson said. “There are a number of steps needed to resolve the issue and we are working on these as quickly as possible.”