The Legal Aid Agency has recently been the victim of a cyber attack. It became evidence this week that the scale of the attack was larger than orginially expected. The Legal Aid Agency have indicated that personal data beloing to persons who have applied for legal aid since 2010 may have been accessed.

The Legal Aid Agency are responsible for dealing with the incident we understand they should be taking steps to inform those who may be affected.

The Legal aid agency have however provided a statement which can be accessed at https://www.gov.uk/government/news/legal-aid-agency-data-breach. In particular the Legal Aid Agency provides the following guidance for those who may have been affected:

“We would urge all members of the public who have applied for legal aid in this time period [since 2010] to take steps to safeguard themselves. We would recommend you are alert for any suspicious activity such as unknown messages or phone calls and to be extra vigilant to update any potentially exposed passwords. If you are in doubt about anyone you are communicating with online or over the phone you should verify their identity independently before providing any information to them.”

Please note that this cyber attack was upon the Legal Aid Agency and not Hartley & Worstenholme.