NewNews - [Capita hack: 90 organisations report data breaches to watchdog] BBC News30 May 2023 00:51
29th May 2023 - BBC News
[Capita hack: 90 organisations report data breaches to watchdog]
Around 90 organisations have reported breaches of personal data held by Capita, the outsourcing giant, according to an privacy watchdog.
The company suffered a cyber attack in March this year and it then emerged that Capita had left a pool of data unsecured online.
Hundreds of thousands of people are now being warned that they could have been affected by the hack
Capita says it has taken steps to secure the data.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO), the privacy and data watchdog, said that so far around 90 organisations had been in contact regarding Capita.
"We are receiving a large number of reports from organisations directly affected by these incidents and we are currently making enquiries", said the ICO.
Capita is used by a large number of public and private organisations and they handle the personal information of millions of people.
Many company pension schemes administer payments through Capita and its clients also include councils.
Capita is facing two issues. The first was the cyber attack earlier this year, followed in May when news broke that Capita had left a repository of files unsecured online.
The company said: "Capita continues to work closely with specialist advisers and forensic experts to investigate the cyber incident and we have taken extensive steps to recover and secure the data."
Security researcher Kevin Beaumont told the BBC the first incident, which he is "very confident" was a ransomware attack, was significant because of the breadth of data potentially at risk which could expose victims to fraud.
Mr Beaumont alerted Capita to the second issue, which left files unsecured online, in April but it only emerged publicly the following month.
A number of councils have said they believe personal data was put at risk, although Capita initially told journalists it did not believe that this was the case.
Read more here👇. Stay Informed https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-65746518
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