(Alliance News) - CVS Group PLC on Monday said it had been the subject of a cyber attack which saw unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems.
The Norfolk, England-based veterinary services provider disclosed the incident had caused "considerable operational disruption" over the past week.
CVS said it took immediate steps to isolate the issue and, to prevent wider unauthorised access, took its IT systems temporarily offline.
To date, this has been effective in preventing further external access to CVS systems, the company said.
CVS has engaged specialist third party consultants to investigate the incident and to support the response. The firm also informed the relevant authorities, including the Information Commissioner's Office, due to the risk of access to personal data.
IT services to its practices and business functions have now been securely restored, CVS stated.
However, due to the increased levels of security and monitoring, some systems are not working as efficiently as previously and this is likely to result in an ongoing operational impact, the company remarked.
Operations outside the UK remain operationally unaffected as do non-CVS hosted systems and the group's e-commerce systems.
As a result of the incident, CVS said it was accelerating plans to migrate its practice management system and related IT infrastructure to the cloud to enhance security and deliver operational efficiencies.
But this is likely to have an impact on operations for a number of weeks, CVS commented.
It is a further disruption for CVS which is facing a formal investigation into the veterinary sector after a warning pet owners may be overpaying for medicines and prescriptions.
In March, the Competition and Markets Authority said an initial review of the sector, announced in September, had highlighted "multiple concerns" in the market.
These include concerns over the lack of information available to customers, weak competition in certain areas, actions by large corporate groups to reduce choice, and fears pet owners might be overcharged, the CMA stated.
"The regulatory framework is outdated and may no longer be fit for purpose," the CMA continued.
As a result, the CMA has provisionally decided that it should launch a formal market investigation focused on its provisional findings.
A market investigation enables the CMA to investigate its concerns in full and to intervene directly in markets if it finds that competition is not working well, the regulator explained.
In response, CVS Group said it had engaged "constructively and proactively" with the CMA throughout its review.
Shares in CVS Group rose 2.3% to 966.00 pence in London on Monday morning.
By Jeremy Cutler, Alliance News reporter
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