In March 2023, Capita, a UK outsourcing firm that provides services to various public and private sectors, was hit by a ransomware attack by the Black Basta gang, who claimed to have stolen personal and financial data of customers and employees. Capita recovered from backups and reported the incident to authorities. It also notified the affected individuals and offered them identity theft protection services.
Impact
The attack caused major IT outages and disruption to Capita’s services, affecting its reputation and revenue. Capita expects to lose up to £20 million due to the incident. The security impact of the above attack is that hackers may have accessed and stolen sensitive data of customers, employees, and suppliers of Capita, as well as its public sector clients. This data could include personal, financial, and health information that could be used for identity theft, fraud, blackmail, or other malicious purposes. The attack also caused major IT outages and disruption to Capita’s services, affecting its reputation and revenue. Capita may also face legal action or regulatory fines for failing to protect its data adequately.
Recommendation
Capita advised its customers, including a large pension scheme, to assume their data was compromised. The hackers may have accessed and leaked sensitive data that could be used for identity theft, fraud, blackmail, or other malicious purposes.
Impacted users should monitor their bank accounts and credit reports, change their passwords and enable multi-factor authentication, be alert for phishing attempts, contact Capita or its clients for confirmation and support, and consider placing a fraud alert or a credit freeze on their credit files
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