South Yorkshire Housing Association 'cyber-incident' probe enters third week

A spokeswoman for South Yorkshire Housing Association said: “Our investigation is still ongoing. In the interests of transparency, we chose to notify all our stakeholders for whom we hold data, on a voluntary, precautionary basis so that they could take precautions while we investigated the matter further.

“We have safely recovered our systems.”

Last month, the association hired cyber-security specialists to ‘restore systems and investigate’ after ‘operational disruption owing to a cyber-incident which impacted our IT network’.

It says there is no evidence personal data has been impacted.

HOW MANY PEOPLE HAVE BEEN CONTACTED?

SYHA, based on Rockingham Street in Sheffield city centre, has nearly 6,000 homes, more than 600 staff and a private sector estate agency, Crucible Homes.

Group chief executive Tony Stacey emailed tenants, former tenants, next-of-kin and ‘similar cases for whom we still hold data for regulatory purposes’.

In an October email, he states: “We understand people may be concerned about their personal data. The investigation is at an early stage, so we are not yet able to confirm whether any of the data held on our systems was impacted but at present no evidence has been identified to suggest it has been impacted. However, it is important to note that the investigation is ongoing and it is possible this will change.”