The Guardian reports that a significant cyberattack affecting the Legal Aid Agency in the UK affects both legal aid applicants and legal aid providers:
The personal data of hundreds of thousands of legal aid applicants in England and Wales dating back to 2010, including criminal records and financial details, has been accessed and downloaded in a “significant” cyber-attack.
Officials admit that the data may have included contact details and addresses of applicants, their dates of birth, national ID numbers, criminal history, employment status and financial data such as contribution amounts, debts and payments.
Lawyers said they had complained for years about the Legal Aid Agency’s IT system and were concerned that the cyber-attack would leave vulnerable claimants and those briefly represented by a duty solicitor open to exposure and possible blackmail.
Hackers have claimed that they accessed 2.1m pieces of data, a figure that has so far been unverified.
It is understood that authorities do not believe that the hack is the work of a state actor, and that it appears to be the work of a criminal gang.
As of publication today, no ransomware gang or hacking group has claimed responsibility for the attack. If the Legal Aid Agency has received an actual ransom note, they have not released a copy of the note, named the attacker or group, or indicated the amount of any ransom demand.
Read more at The Guardian.
