Flagship Group falls victim to major cyberattack with cybercrooks using ransomware on social housing group
A social housing group which rents properties to thousands of people across Suffolk has fallen victim to a major cyberattack.
Flagship Housing's network became infected with ransomware on Sunday, taking most of its network offline.
And now cybercrooks, who used virus Sodinokibi, are now demanding Bitcoin payments to access the customer information the software has encrypted.
IT staff at Flagship, on discovering the attack, immediately took all other systems offline to stop the spread of the virus - a move which the company has said has been successful.
The attack usually starts from a phishing email - one that looks like it is from a legitimate sender - which will then download software or use an exploit in existing computer programmes to begin the attack.
The group, which rents out houses, flats and garages across the county including in Newmarket , Bury St Edmunds , and Woodbridge , said some personal and staff data had been compromised in the attack but it didn't yet have a complete picture of all the data which has been encrypted.
David McQuade, chief executive of Flagship Group, said: "We take privacy and security of our customer and staff data very seriously, and we're very sorry it has been compromised.
"Over the last few days, the incident has caused considerable disruption to staff and customer services, and we are concentrating on emergency situations to ensure our customers are safe.
"Our teams are working tirelessly around the clock to bring our systems back online, and we apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused"
He urged customers to be cautious when dealing with telephone calls and emails, and that the group had already implemented extra security measures.
The company has now reported the cyberattack to the police, who have launched an investigation, while the National Cybersecurity Centre and the National Crime Agency have been offering advice to Flagship.
The Information Commissioner's Office, Action Fraud and the Regulator of Social Housing have also been informed.
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