Capita Warns Customers of Data Breach After Cyberattack

IT Services firm Capita has warned its customers to assume that their data was stolen in a cyberattack that affected its systems in early April. The attack affected up to 350 UK corporate retirement schemes, making it the largest hack in British history, according to industry sources.

Capita acknowledged the attack three days after a weekend-long outage, describing it initially as a “technical problem.” However, on April 20th, Capita revealed that attackers exfiltrated files from roughly 4% of its “server estate,” including systems customer, supplier, or colleague data, after gaining access to Capita’s systems on March 22 and remaining active until the firm discovered the breach on March 31.

Capita informed Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), the largest private pension scheme in the UK, that servers accessed by the hackers held roughly 470,000 active, deferred, and retired members’ personal information, including names, dates of birth, National Insurance numbers, and USS member numbers. USS manages the pensions of over 500,000 members from UK universities and Higher Education institutions, investing £82.2 billion (over $102 billion) on their behalf.

“While Capita cannot currently confirm if this data was definitively ‘exfiltrated’ (i.e., accessed and/or copied) by the hackers, they recommend we work on the assumption it was. We are awaiting receipt of the specific data from Capita, which we will in turn need to check and process,” USS said on Friday, adding that it had reported the incident to the ICO, the Pensions Regulator, and the Financial Conduct Authority.

What are the Precautionary Measures Customers Should Take in Response to the Car Location Data Breach?

Customers must take precautionary measures in response to a sensitive car location data breach. Firstly, they should change their passwords and enable two-factor authentication on car tracking apps. Secondly, regularly update software and ensure it is from trusted sources. Lastly, be cautious when granting permissions and sharing personal data to minimize the risk of further breaches.

Black Basta Claims Responsibility

The Black Basta ransomware gang added a private entry for Capita to its data leak site using a private link on April 17, threatening to sell allegedly stolen data, including personal bank account details, physical addresses, passport scans, and other sensitive info.

Capita declined to provide a statement when IT Services reached out for a comment on the ransomware gang’s allegations. After another two weeks, on May 5th, Capita published a new update saying that “data was exfiltrated from less than 0.1% of its server estate.” The company also revealed that it’s expecting to incur exceptional costs linked to the April incident of up to £20 million (around $25 million).

Capita is a government contractor that also works with clients in the finance, IT, healthcare, and education sectors. Its customer list includes high-profile companies such as Vodafone, O2, and the Royal Bank of Scotland.