Riot-fuelled DoS attack sparks email upgrade at West Midlands Police

West Midlands Police has completed an multi-million-pound upgrade to its core email system, a project that was fast-tracked after a denial-of-service (DoS) attack linked to the summer riots crippled the force's communications systems.

The UK's second-largest police force began a fundamental review of its IT infrastructure following the appointment of a new chief information officer (CIO), Chris Price, in spring 2011.

A spokeswoman for the force told Computing that the upgrade to the email system had been implemented following a DoS attack linked to the summer riots.

“As a result, the CIO accelerated the introduction of new systems – including email – ahead of schedule,” she added. “This has resulted in modern, resilient email services across the force.”

The new Microsoft-based system will also allow the force to move towards a deployment of unified communications, with voicemail, videoconferencing and presence capabilities built in to the new system.

A report for the West Midlands Police Authority – entitled “Issues with email” – confirmed that the new communication system has been deployed on a four-server configuration hosted at the force's primary datacentre.

A second datacentre will be added for resilience in early 2012, once the force has secured a new electricity supply for the site.

Price – the former Highways Agency IT chief – had been brought in to oversee the IT component of a major cost reduction programme at the force, codenamed Paragon.

Under Paragon, the force's IT structure is to be updated to allow for better public access to its services, along with more sophisticated information systems to manage staff and resources.

According to the Birmingham Mail, which first reported the cyber attack on the police systems, the force's email provider had refused to accept newly logged faults with its Outlook/Exchange email system for two years prior to the upgrade, as the system was so out of date.

Under the Paragon plans, West Midlands Police intends to create a shared services arrangement with Surrey Police, which will oversee the introduction of the new information systems. The procurement process for the Paragon initiative is expected to kick off this month.