An East Lancashire local authority is upgrading its information technology security to combat cyber attacks.

Burnley Council's deputy leader Cllr Margaret Lishman told its executive meeting on Wednesday night that its latest Strategic Risk Register identified "cyber issues" as the main emerging threat to its operations.

She was speaking as she presented a detailed report on the issue.

On the issue of "Changes in Risk Scores", Cllr Lishman's report said: "The major change is the increase in the information technology risks where the impact has increased from four to five.

"This reflects the increased costs and service disruption from a cyber attack.

"The reported impacts in other local authorities and the public sector have been major.

"There are regular warnings from national agencies about cyber-attacks during elections.

"This puts the risk as the joint highest risk faced by the council.

"We will develop our digital strategy, so that more residents transact with us online and we will continue to deliver services more efficiently.

"Robust contract management is in place with delivery partners (Liberata, Urbaser, development partners and key software providers).

"Detailed risk register for IT under regular review and actions being taken to mitigate priority risks.

"Cloud first policy to improve network access and reliability, and to drive down maintenance costs.

"Cyber treatment plan implemented to reduce risk from data breach, including prevention and restoration actions, and insurance against data loss.

"Use of framework agreements to reduce tendering costs and therefore reduce change and improvement costs.

"Council's achievement of Cyber Essentials Plus standard and working on the Cyber Assessment Framework for Local Government.

"Digital Strategy 2024/2028 developed and being implemented.

"In case of malicious attack the Cyber Treatment Plan covers simulated phishing attacks, staff training, investment in enhance data security to filter out threats, Multi-Factor Authentication on all accounts with enhanced MFA on admin accounts, data back-ups, and business continuity testing."