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Flagship battling to restore services after cyber attack
A large housing association in East Anglia is still battling to restore all its services, more than a fortnight after being hit by a major cyber attack.
Cyber criminals took most of the Flagship Group’s systems offline and severely disrupted its services on 1 November.
The 32,000-home landlord warned that despite its “quick action” to stop the spread of the attack, “some personal customer and staff data has been compromised”.
Flagship told Inside Housing that its teams are still working “around the clock” to restore all its systems with most essential functions now working again.
The housing association’s website remained down as of Thursday morning.
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An investigation into the attack is ongoing, but cybersecurity specialists have informed Flagship that it involved the Sodinokibi ransomware – the same malware used by cyber criminals to demand £4.6m from foreign exchange company Travelex, following an infection on New Year’s Eve.
The landlord said it has not engaged with those responsible and so is “not aware” of the ransom demand.
Matt Brazier, director of IT and systems at Flagship, said: “The investigation is still ongoing, and we continue to work with the Information Commissioner’s Office and our cybersecurity specialists.
“However, we have managed to safely bring back most of our essential systems and our teams continue to work around the clock to bring the rest back.
“We have sent a letter to all our customers to notify them of the incident. And as an extra security measure and for peace of mind, we have offered fraud and web monitoring services to both staff and customers.”
The cyber attack on Flagship is the latest in a series against the social housing sector.
In October, the Chartered Institute of Housing was affected, while Red Kite Community Housing was defrauded out of nearly £1m after falling victim to a cyber scam last year.
Earlier this year, the Scottish Housing Regulator warned landlords about the threat of coronavirus-themed cyber attacks, after one housing association was hit by a ransomware attack and others were targeted with phishing email campaigns.
