Legal Aid Agency – Cyber Attack
There has been a cybersecurity incident at the Legal Aid Agency.
What we know
According to the Legal Aid Agency, a significant amount of personal data belonging to individuals who applied for legal aid through its digital service from 2010 onwards may have been stolen.
This 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.
The Legal Aid Agency have urged members of the public who have applied for legal aid in this time period to take steps to safeguard themselves.
What this means
We appreciate this knowledge will cause some concern, however, we are not able to confirm whether individual details have been compromised, as this information is only available to the Legal Aid Agency itself.
Steps you should take
As a precaution, we would encourage individuals to remain vigilant in respect to fraudulent or suspicious activity. Below are some best practice and preventative steps you can take:
- Use strong passwords and change them regularly.
- Use a password for your personal email accounts which is different from all your other passwords and ensure it is strong.
- Never give out your personal details over the telephone unless you are sure of who you are speaking to.
- Look out for emails that do not “feel right”, they may contain grammatical errors, the email address may be linked to an unknown domain, and they may also ask you to download a document or open an attachment.
- Check your bank accounts regularly and contact the bank if you see any transactions that you do not recognise.
- Enable two-step or multi-factor authentication on all your online services and accounts.
Further helpful guidance is provided by the national cyber security centre:
Next Steps
You can obtain more detailed and up to date information directly from the Legal Aid Agency’s website.
Should you wish to discuss this in further detail, we would invite you to contact your instructed Solicitor within the Firm.
