GC reports:
The UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) has sustained a cyber attack adversely affecting several of its web assets, which has resulted in data being encrypted by a third party.
After reporting the incident to the National Crime Agency, the National Cyber Security Centre and Information Commissioner’s Office, UKRI stated that at this point it cannot confirm whether or not any data was extracted from its systems, as investigation is underway.
The cyber attack’s impact was seen on two of its services – a portal of the UK Research Office (UKRO) based in Brussels and an extranet (called the BBSRC extranet) used by the UK’s Councils
Read more on Government Computing.
UKRI posted a statement on their site yesterday:
We are treating an IT incident that has impacted a number of UKRI-related web assets as a cyber attack that has resulted in data being encrypted by a third party.
At this stage we cannot confirm whether any of that data was extracted from our systems whilst investigations continue.
[…]
The UKRO subscription service has 13,000 users but does not contain sensitive personal data. We are working to recover this service as soon as possible. In the meantime, to contact UKRO please email: [email protected]
We are working to restore all affected services as soon as possible and provide alternative support to minimise any disruption to the peer review process and users of the UKRO portal.
We will provide further updates in due course.
h/t, @Chum1ng0