Speaking to the Lusa agency, mayor Luís Encarnação, said that the services "have been gradually restored, but normality will still take some time".

“There are still constraints, but we believe that between today and tomorrow, we can start to re-establish contact with our citizens, which is our priority”, he pointed out.

Luís Encarnação estimated that the municipality's computer system “could be up and running in an acceptable situation by the beginning of next week”.

The Câmara de Lagoa, in the district of Faro, was the target, over the weekend, of a cyberattack that is affecting the internal system.


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The 'ransomware' cyber-attack began on Saturday afternoon and was completed during the early hours of Sunday, with more than 600 megabytes of documents belonging to the municipality having been stolen and the entire system having been brought down, said the mayor.

In addition to the transfer of a considerable amount of information, several files were encrypted and two 'links' were left, "probably for contact", according to the municipality.

“We don't know the reason for these addresses, but I assume these would be with redemption conditions. They were not opened, nor accessed by the municipality's technicians, leaving it to the authorities who are carrying out the investigation”, he noted.

According to the mayor, the computer attack is being investigated by the Judiciary Police, with the collaboration of its international counterparts.