In March 2023, Capita encountered a cyber-attack causing service disruptions for staff, local authorities, and businesses. Initially described as an internal system disruption, it later emerged as a ransomware attack potentially resulting in a data breach.

Investigations point towards Black Basta, a Russian-based ransomware group, as the likely perpetrators. They asserted possession of Capita’s data in a now-deleted online statement. Capita has refrained from commenting on whether they paid the ransom.

The compromised employee data includes dates of birth, marital status, home addresses, salary, email addresses, employment details and employment history. Personal data, including names, dates of birth and National Insurance numbers may have been accessed by hackers. Other valuable information may also have been compromised and we understand financial/bank details were also affected.

On March 31 2023, Capita said:

“Following a technical problem which has affected access to some of our services today, we can confirm that we have identified an IT issue that is primarily impacting our internal systems. We are working to swiftly restore those services that have been affected and will issue a further update in due course.”

On 20 April 2023, Capita provided more information when it posted the following statement on its website:

“On 3 April 2023, Capita plc (“Capita”) announced that it had experienced a cyber incident which primarily impacted access to internal Microsoft Office 365 applications.

“Since the incident, Capita and its technical partners have restored Capita colleagues’ access to Microsoft Office 365. The majority of Capita’s client services were not impacted by the incident and remained in operation, and Capita has now restored virtually all client services that were impacted.

“In parallel with the services restoration activity, Capita has continued to work closely and at speed with specialist advisers and forensic experts in investigating the incident to provide assurance around any potential customer, supplier or colleague data exfiltration.

“From our investigations to date, it appears that the incident arose following initial unauthorised access on or around 22 March and was interrupted by Capita on 31 March. As a result of the interruption, the incident was significantly restricted, potentially affecting around 4% of Capita’s server estate. There is currently some evidence of limited data exfiltration from the small proportion of affected server estate which might include customer, supplier or colleague data.

“Capita continues to work through its forensic investigations and will inform any customers, suppliers or colleagues that are impacted in a timely manner.

“Capita continues to comply with all relevant regulatory obligations.”

Capita should be in touch to notify affected individuals.

Anyone who thinks they might be involved should take immediate steps to protect themselves. 

If you receive notification that you are affected by the Capita pension data breach, join the claim to receive updates on the investigation. KP Law will let you know what’s happening, and if and when you can make a no-win, no-fee data breach compensation claim.  

A group action claim is where a group of people – sometimes even thousands of people – have been affected by the same issue. Group action cases are also known as class actions, multi-claimant, or multi-party actions.

There are no costs to join the claim. However, if your claim is successful, you may have to pay a ‘success fee’. This fee is taken from the compensation awarded to you. At KP Law, their success fee is competitive, they make sure you are fully informed about any potential costs before you officially join the action. If you lose, you won’t have to pay a penny.