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CYBER-CRIME

19


CRIMINAL RECORDS OFFICE YANKS WEB PORTAL OFFLINE AMID 'CYBER SECURITY INCIDENT'

19


ACRO SAYS PAYMENT DATA SAFE, OTHER INFO MAY HAVE BEEN SNAFFLED

Paul Kunert
Thu 6 Apr 2023 // 08:30 UTC




ACRO, the UK's criminal records office, is combing over a "cyber security
incident" that forced it to pull its customer portal offline.

As the name implies, the government agency manages people's criminal record
information, running checks as needed on individuals for any convictions,
cautions, or ongoing prosecutions. It doesn't just work with British police and
businesses: it exchanges this data with other countries.

This data, used by employers vetting potential hires and embassies processing
visa applications, is drawn from UK's Police National Computer via an
information sharing agreement ACRO has with the Cabinet Office.



The data input typically includes a decade's worth of name and address history,
extended family information, a new foreign address, legal representation,
passport information, photo and data PIN cautions, reprimands, arrests, charges
or convictions.

> We are very sorry that because of your interaction with ACRO your data could
> have been affected

In an email to users this week – seen by El Reg – ACRO confirmed it has
"recently been made aware of a cyber security incident affecting the website
between 17th January 2023 and 21 March 2023."

"At this time," it added, "we have no conclusive evidence that personal data has
been affected by the cyber security incident; however it is only right that we
inform you of the situation. We are very sorry that because of your interaction
with ACRO your data could have been affected, and we are working tirelessly to
resolve this matter."




"As soon as ACRO was made aware of this incident, we took robust action to take
the customer portal offline so that we could fully investigate," the message
continued.

The website right now tells visitors: "Thank you for you patience as we work
through our technical issues." ACRO lists where users can obtain application
forms for Police or International Child Protection Certificates.



A quick check on Twitter shows ACRO customer service noted on March 21 that the
website was unavailable due to maintenance, and appears to have been down since
with one further update on March 31.

Those who got the email were using ACRO's services as a direct applicant; "in
support of an application as a nominated endorser; or a professional
administering the application for and with the applicant."

ACRO said there "does not appear to be any potential risk to your payment
information" or to the information or certificates that were dispatched
following the application.



"The personal data which could have been affected is any information you
supplied to us, including identification information and any criminal conviction
data." It added: "If you had a nominated endorser, professional or other third
party, their name, relationship to the applicant, occupation, phone numbers,
email address and case reference number could have been affected."

 * Psst! Infosec bigwigs: Wanna be head of security at HM Treasury for £50k?
 * Leaked Guntrader firearms data file shared. Worst case scenario? Criminals
   plot UK gun owners' home addresses in Google Earth
 * UK data watchdog fines government office for disclosing New Year's gong list
 * Telegraph newspaper bares 10TB of subscriber data and server logs to
   world+dog
 * Capita: Cyber-attack broke some of our IT systems
 * UK Ministry of Defence takes recruitment system offline, confirms data leak

Britain's privacy watchdog the ICO was informed of the snafu, says ACRO, which
is also working with the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC) – an offshoot of
intelligence nerve-center GCHQ – to probe the matter.

"We take data security very seriously and will ensure that the matter is fully
investigated; part of the investigation will include learning how we can
identify, prevent and block any future security threats," ACRO said in its
email.

We're not sure ACRO should be handing out security advice right now but in any
case, it urged users to make sure they use "strong and unique passwords" for
their online accounts and keep an eye out for suspicious activity, "for example
potential phishing emails."

On March 31, ACRO's Twitter account asked anyone who submitted an application
form by email or mailed the dedicated mailboxes since the website went down to
bear with it.

"The website issue and manual processing of applications has created a backlog
but we are allocating more resources to our customer service team and getting
through the list as quickly as we possibly can," it noted.

We asked the ACRO press office to comment on the intruders' point of system
entry; what exactly these miscreants accomplished when on the inside for so
long; for technical details of any malware used; if there is any word on the
other data accessed; and if payment data was held on a separate system.

A spokesperson at ACRO said they were unable to answer our questions as an
investigation is ongoing, "but can confirm the website was taken down on 21st
March." The other statements it made were already contained in the mea culpa to
users.

NCSC told us: "We are aware of an incident affecting ACRO Criminal Records
Office and are working with them to fully understand the impact." The ICO said
it is also aware of the incident and "making enquiries." ®

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Share



SIMILAR TOPICS

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 * Cybercrime
 * Data Breach

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SIMILAR TOPICS

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 * Cybercrime
 * Data Breach
 * Police
 * Security


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 * Advanced persistent threat
 * Application Delivery Controller
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 * BEC
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 * Common Vulnerability Scoring System
 * CSAM
 * Cybersecurity
 * Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
 * Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act
 * Data Protection
 * Data Theft
 * DDoS
 * Digital certificate
 * Encryption
 * Exploit
 * Firewall
 * Hacker
 * Hacking
 * Identity Theft
 * Incident response
 * Infosec
 * Interpol
 * Kenna Security
 * NCSAM
 * NCSC
 * Palo Alto Networks
 * Password
 * Phishing
 * Quantum key distribution
 * Ransomware
 * Remote Access Trojan
 * REvil
 * RSA Conference
 * Spamming
 * Spyware
 * Surveillance
 * TLS
 * Trojan
 * Trusted Platform Module
 * Vulnerability
 * Wannacry
 * Zero trust

SIMILAR TOPICS

Share


19 COMMENTS

SIMILAR TOPICS

 * Crime
 * Cybercrime
 * Data Breach

More like these
×


SIMILAR TOPICS

 * Crime
 * Cybercrime
 * Data Breach
 * Police
 * Security


NARROWER TOPICS

 * 2FA
 * Advanced persistent threat
 * Application Delivery Controller
 * Authentication
 * BEC
 * Black Hat
 * Bug Bounty
 * Common Vulnerability Scoring System
 * CSAM
 * Cybersecurity
 * Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
 * Cybersecurity Information Sharing Act
 * Data Protection
 * Data Theft
 * DDoS
 * Digital certificate
 * Encryption
 * Exploit
 * Firewall
 * Hacker
 * Hacking
 * Identity Theft
 * Incident response
 * Infosec
 * Interpol
 * Kenna Security
 * NCSAM
 * NCSC
 * Palo Alto Networks
 * Password
 * Phishing
 * Quantum key distribution
 * Ransomware
 * Remote Access Trojan
 * REvil
 * RSA Conference
 * Spamming
 * Spyware
 * Surveillance
 * TLS
 * Trojan
 * Trusted Platform Module
 * Vulnerability
 * Wannacry
 * Zero trust

TIP US OFF

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