In recent months it has been reported that police in Northern Ireland have been investigating a case in which hackers had stolen data for more than a hundred charities and their beneficiaries.
A data management firm based in Derry had been targeted last month by cyber criminals, resulting in a potentially devastating amount of stolen data.
The company has now stated that they work with around 140 charities as a whole and have notified all those effected by the incident. The PSNI said: “The matter was referred to specialist detectives in the PSNI’s Cyber Crime Investigation Team. Enquiries, in conjunction with our national partners, are ongoing. As such, it would be inappropriate to comment further at this time.”
A Belfast charity ‘One in Four’ that works alongside adults that have survived child sexual abuse, said the personal details held for some of their beneficiaries had been compromised by the event.
The charity said in a statement: “On 5 April we were notified by one of our IT service providers that they had been subject to a cyber security incident.”
One in Four continued: “We now know that the personal information of people who have used our service has been accessed. “We have begun contacting individual clients directly to advise them of the incident and to address any concerns they may have. “We have taken this approach to allow us to provide proper support to clients who may find this incident distressing. Our priority at all times is the welfare and wellbeing of our clients.”
The charity continued by acknowledging they may not be able to contact all those who may have been affected.
Data most recently reported that one in three charities or non-profit organisations were directly targeted by cyber criminals within the year of 2021. Two reasonably large charities, known as Shelter and the YoungMinds Trust, have stated that their data had been compromised when the cloud-computing firm Blackbaud was also targeted by cyber criminal hackers in 2020.
To find out more about Cyber Insurance and how we may be able to support your organisation against such risks please visit our Cyber and Data Insurance page or contact us directly via telephone 01909 565 858 or email info@ladbrook.co.uk.
