Capita warns of £20m hit from cyber attack

A cyber attack against outsourcing firm Capita which saw personal information leaked onto the dark web is likely to cost £15 to £20m to resolve, the firm has revealed.

Capita, which provides data and IT outsourcing processes, was hit by a cyber attack in March and personal information including addresses and passport images were leaked online.

The firm said this morning it continues to work “closely and at speed with specialist advisers and forensic experts to investigate and resolve the cyber incident”.

“Capita understands now, based on its own forensic work and that of its third-party providers, that some data was exfiltrated from less than 0.1 per cent of its server estate,” the firm said in an update.

“Capita has taken extensive steps to recover and secure the customer, supplier and colleague data contained within the impacted server estate, and to remediate any issues arising from the incident.”

Capita results

The firm, one of the UK government’s biggest suppliers, said it expects to incur “exceptional costs” of around £15m to £20m as a result of the incident, made up of specialist professional fees, recovery and remediation costs and investment to reinforce Capita’s cyber security environment. 

The hack triggered warnings from financial regulators in the past week that pension firms and top corporate clients of Capita should investigate whether their customers’ data had been leaked in the attack.

The Financial Conduct Authority contacted businesses which use Capita for administration, including FTSE 100 firms Aviva and Phoenix Group.

The Pensions Regulator also wrote to pension fund trustees to ask them to investigate whether their clients’ data was at risk.

The update from Capita this morning came as the firm said its underlying trading performance remained in line with expectations. 

Adjusted group revenue for Core Capita for the first four months of 2023 was up by 4.8 per cent year-on-year, while sales performance had been “strong” over the first four months of the year, with in-year-revenue wins of £449m, up 16 per cent on the same period last year.