One year on – the extent of the MOVEit data hack is just becoming clear
June 14, 2024
The number of organisations affected by the MoveIt Data Breach is still rising, despite the fact that a year has passed since the incident.
In June 2023, hackers – believed to be part of a Russian crime group – exploited a security flaw in the MOVEit file transfer software. MOVEit claims to provide secure and compliant file transfers for sensitive data within and between organisations. The breach affects several global organisations that use this software.
Payroll provider Zellis is one organisation affected. Zellis provides payroll support services to hundreds of companies in the UK, including BP, Coca-Cola, GSK, Tesco and Vodafone. Eight of its clients are said to be impacted by the breach, including British Airways.
Other organisations are also affected.
At KP Law, our cyber experts are investigating the breach to find out what happened, which organisations are involved, and how the breach affects their employees.
If you receive notification that you are affected by this data breach, register below to make a no-win, no-fee compensation claim.
If it is your payroll data that has been accessed, your employer cannot fire you or harm your career in any way if you make a claim. They would be breaking employment law if they did, and any action could be classed as discrimination.
We don’t yet know the full extent of the data breach. Thousands of organisations across the globe are thought to be affected.
In the UK, the following companies have had data accessed:
34,000 UK employees could have had their bank, contact details, and national insurance numbers accessed by hackers.
Boots said it had been affected by the data breach. Boots has 50,000 staff.
According to the Telegraph newspaper, the BBC is also among those to have been affected.
Around 5,000 employees are affected. According to Aer Lingus, no financial or bank details relating to Aer Lingus current or former employees were compromised in this incident. While airline’s head office is in Dublin, it also has Hubs in the UK.
412 Ofcom employees have had their data stolen in the data security incident.
The accountancy firm said that the vast majority of its systems were unaffected but that it was investigating where data may have been accessed.
Shell confirmed it was impacted by the ransomware attack after it was listed on an extortion site.
Clop has been posting the names of those companies it claims to have accessed, pressurising them into paying a ransom. So far, around 50 victims have been named, but none of the ‘big names’ such as the BBC, BA and Boots have been posted by Clop.
Clop is now claiming that: “We don’t have that data and we told Zellis about it.”
If Clop is telling the truth, then the affected Zellis clients could be at greater risk than was initially thought. The situation is less certain if nobody knows where the stolen data is.
In some cases, bank, contact details, and national insurance numbers have been accessed by hackers.
At KP Law, we have seen victims of similar data breaches become the target of cybercriminals, with instances of phishing, fraud, and identity theft. Those affected could be at risk and our data protection experts strongly advise anyone involved in this breach to be vigilant and take necessary precautions.
This is a good question, and it is a tricky one to answer. Because while it was MOVEit that was hacked, organisations – including employers – are responsible for the security of their personal data.
If an organisation’s personal data has been breached, it must notify those affected and report the data incident to the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO).
Following the breach, the ICO will likely want to know more about the affected organisations’ security measures, and their relationship with third-party software providers in regards to data protection.
The number of organisations affected by the MoveIt Data Breach is still rising, despite the fact that a year has passed since the incident.
Hackers Clop say they don’t have stolen data from Boots, BA and the BBC following the MoveIT/Zellis data breach.
Hacker group Clop has published the names of the organisations affected by the MoveIT data breach on the dark web.
The data breach happened after hackers – believed to be part of a Russian crime group – exploited a security flaw in the MOVEit software.
The breach affects several global organisation. Payroll provider Zellis is one organisation affected. Zellis provides payroll support services to hundreds of companies in the UK. Eight of its clients are said to be impacted by the breach, including British Airways.
The list of potentially compromised data includes employee bank, contact details, and national insurance numbers.
Zellis has confirmed the breach. Stating that:
“We can confirm that a small number of our customers have been impacted by this global issue and we are actively working to support them.”
Commenting on the breach, a spokesperson for BA said:
“We have been informed that we are one of the companies impacted by Zellis’ cybersecurity incident which occurred via one of their third-party suppliers called MOVEit,”
“This incident happened because of a new and previously unknown vulnerability in a widely used MOVEit file transfer tool. We have notified those colleagues whose personal information has been compromised to provide support and advice.”
Affected companies should be in touch to notify affected employees.
Anyone who thinks they might be involved should take immediate steps to protect themselves. Find out how to do this here.
If you receive notification that you are affected by this data breach, register below to receive updates on our investigation. We’ll let you know what’s happening, 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.
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While each case is judged on its own merits, there are some things we would typically look for when it comes to when claiming compensation following a data breach, cybercrime or other GDPR violation:
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