IT staff at the borough council are to come up with a strategy to defeat cyber-attacks on the local authority's computer systems, councillors will be told.

The council has been advised to do so by the National Cyber Security Centre, an offshoot of GCHQ in Cheltenham, in order to make it safer, especially as it moves to providing more services to the community online.

A report to members of the Resources and Corporate Overview and Scrutiny Committee before its meeting next week says: "In a response to an escalating national cyber threat and to the advice of the National Cyber Security Centre, the director of digital services and corporate programmes will work with the lead member for corporate and customer cervices and other appropriate stakeholders to produce a cyber security strategy.

"This strategy will be important to offset some of the risks in moving the business model to become more reliant on internet-based technology and to address the ever increasing attack vectors and potential vulnerabilities in the council's estate."

The meeting will begin at 6pm on Monday October 29 at the Civic Offices in Euclid Street. Members of the public may attend.