March 25, 2024 at 11:35AM
The Communication Workers Union (CWU) is dealing with a cyberattack, originally mistaken for just an IT outage. Member data may have been targeted, prompting involvement of cybersecurity experts. The union is working to assess the extent of the attack, inform members, and restore its IT systems. The Information Commissioner’s Office has been made aware of the incident.
The Communications Workers Union (CWU) has been dealing with a cyber attack on its IT systems, with email services down and some systems being pulled down as a precaution. The union has engaged third-party cybersecurity experts to assess the full extent of the attack and is working on a digital forensic analysis to determine what occurred and the next steps to restore its IT infrastructure. The incident possibly involves a breach of CWU member data, although it’s not confirmed at this point. The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) is assessing the situation, and organizations are only required to report data breaches if they are likely to present a risk to the rights and freedoms of the affected individuals. Despite a source claiming that data backups were also corrupted, the union’s regional secretaries and branch offices have not been made aware of any cybersecurity or data security incident beyond email outages. The cyberattack has highlighted the importance of robust data backups and the need for organizations to keep backups away from their network or off-site. This incident serves as a reminder that cyber attacks can have significant impacts, and organizations must prioritize cybersecurity to safeguard their systems and data.