Capita, one of many UK’s largest outsourcers, has written to pension shoppers confirming that some information it processed was more likely to have been hacked throughout a current cyber assault.

Final month, Capita disclosed a cyber assault in March had probably affected about 4 per cent of its servers with “some proof of restricted information exfiltration” affecting buyer, provider or colleague information.

Regulators have since urged shoppers of Capita, together with lots of of pension funds, huge insurers and public sector departments, to test whether or not their member and shopper information had been compromised within the hack.

In correspondence despatched to trustees on Thursday, the contents of which have been seen by the Monetary Instances, Capita mentioned a big group of workers had searched the servers that had been affected by the assault to grasp what information may need been misplaced.

The outsourcer mentioned it has “recognized from these investigations” that some pensions information that Capita processes on behalf of its shoppers “is more likely to have been exfiltrated”.

“To be clear, this doesn’t essentially imply that your information has been recognized as exfiltrated, it signifies that your information was on [Capita] servers from which some information is more likely to have been exfiltrated,” it mentioned within the message.

Capita instructed trustees it anticipated the investigations to be finalised “by the tip of subsequent week or shortly thereafter”. It added that there was “no proof” that Capita pensions information was out there on the darkish net and that it had a third-party specialist checking regularly. It had rebuilt its server infrastructure to scale back the chance of an identical incident reoccurring, in line with the message.

Capita is a big outsourcer to the non-public and public sectors and is likely one of the UK authorities’s largest contractors. Its companies embrace working the London congestion charging zone, gathering the BBC licence price and overseeing coaching for the Royal Navy.

In a press release to the FT, Capita mentioned it was “working intently with specialist advisers and forensic specialists” in investigating the cyber incident “to offer assurance round any potential buyer, provider or colleague information exfiltration”.

“Capita continues to work via its forensic investigations and inform any clients, suppliers or colleagues which are impacted in a well timed method,” it added.

The correspondence got here to mild as some pension shoppers of Capita reported they have been “struggling” to get data from the outsourcer in regards to the incident greater than 5 weeks after it was detected.

One authorized knowledgeable who works for a Capita pension consumer instructed the FT: “Trustees and managers are struggling to get information particular to their scheme’s scenario. They’re involved to search out out whether or not their schemes have been affected by the information breach.”

The Pensions Regulator mentioned it was “partaking straight” with Capita concerning its communication with pension scheme shoppers.

“We’re persevering with to intently monitor the incident at Capita,” TPR mentioned. “That is an ongoing scenario with extra element rising every day. We’re in touch with trustees, different regulators and Capita.”

The regulator added “we’re talking to Capita about what they’re able to share with trustees”.

TPR and the Monetary Conduct Authority have written to shoppers of Capita, urging them to test if that they had been affected by the Capita cyber assault, and report this to the Info Commissioner’s Workplace, if related. Earlier this week, the FCA additionally mentioned it had “continued to have interaction” with Capita to grasp the extent of the breach.

Organisations are required to inform the ICO, which regulates information safety, of a private information breach inside 72 hours of turning into conscious of an incident, and in addition contact affected people.

The ICO confirmed to the FT it had obtained studies of information breaches probably linked to a cyber assault at Capita. In its first affirmation of information breach studies from the outsourcer’s shoppers, the regulator mentioned: “We now have obtained different breach studies believed to be in reference to the Capita incident.”