Capita hit with £14m fine for personal data breach in 2023 cyber attack

Outsourcing giant Capita has been fined £14 million by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for failing to protect personal data after hackers stole 6.6 million people’s information during a cyber attack in 2023.

The data watchdog said the breach in March 2023 saw the hackers access information including pension details and staff records, as well as details of customers of organisations Capita supports.

In some cases this included sensitive information such as details of criminal records, financial data or so-called special category data, which can include race, religion and sexual orientation.

The ICO fined Capita £8 million and Capita Pension Solutions a further £6 million.

John Edwards, UK information commissioner, said: “Capita failed in its duty to protect the data entrusted to it by millions of people.

“The scale of this breach and its impact could have been prevented had sufficient security measures been in place.”