PFEW cyber attacks advice

We’ve started taking cases forward on a No Win, No Fee basis for victims of the PFEW cyber attacks that were announced recently.

Some 120,000 police employees may have been affected by this data breach, spanning 40 different forces. The PFEW (Police Federation of England and Wales) cannot determine whether any information was exposed, so on the basis that it cannot be ruled out, we’ve agreed to take cases on.

Another key factor is that there were two separate incidents that spanned over a number of weeks. The first incident took place on 9^th March 2019, and the second took place on 21^st March 2019. It’s believed that the attacks were a part of a wider operation as opposed to specifically targeting PFEW.

No Win, No Fee arrangements for victims of the PFEW cyber attacks

If you fit our criteria for a case, we may be able to take a claim for data breach compensation forward on a No Win, No Fee basis for those affected by the PFEW cyber attacks.

The ICO (Information Commissioner’s Office) and the NCSC (National Cyber Security Centre) are aware of the incidents, and criminal investigations have been opened. Steps were promptly taken to protect the systems that had been compromised, but with no confirmation that data was definitely protected, information could have been exposed.

Thousands of data breach victims have come to us for help over the years we’ve pioneering compensation for the misuse of private information. Our lawyers are fighting for justice in over 20 different group action / multi-party actions as well. A number of these individual and group cases stemmed from similar incidents; i.e. cyber attacks that can expose information. We’re happy to consider cases for those affected by the PFEW cyber attacks on a free, no-obligation basis. If we think we can help you, we may be able to offer you a No Win, No Fee arrangement.

Could the PFEW cyber attacks have been prevented?

We know that the PFEW cyber attacks were not targeted specifically to hit them in particular. This may have been a similar operation to the 2017 WannaCry event that hit the NHS hard. That particular ransomware was designed to target older and more outdated systems, which can sometimes be weaker in terms of cybersecurity. Because some NHS organisations were using older and outdated systems, a number of Trusts were hit hard by the incident.

Although we don’t know at this point, it may be that the PFEW data breach incidents happened for a similar reason. It could be that the attack was targeting potentially weaker systems, which are (of course) generally easier to break. As part of our investigations, we aim to answer this question, and delve deeper as to whether we can determine the likelihood that information had been exposed, and whether it could have been prevented.

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