The Journal reports:
A police investigation has been launched after a charity that works with vulnerable children suffered a data breach in a ransomware attack.
Extern, a cross-border social justice charity with offices in Belfast and Co Kildare, has confirmed that it has been the victim of a large ransomware cyber attack.
One source told The Journal that staff bank account details, addresses and email addresses had all been accessed by the hackers. Extern would not say whether service users have also been impacted.
The charity, which reportedly receives millions of euro in State funding from Tusla each year, said: “The full extent of this incident is being investigated and contained by external cyber security specialists.”
Read more at The Journal.
While the news outlet refers to this as a ransomware incident, there is nothing in the news report that specifically confirms or denies whether there was any encryption involved in the attack on Extern.
No ransomware group appears to have claimed credit for this one yet, but DataBreaches notes that there is an Irish rehab facility listed on LockBit this morning. Whether one affiliate might be responsible for this incident as well is unknown at this point.
DataBreaches emailed Extern to inquire whether encryption was involved in the attack and what group has attempted to extort them, but no reply has been received as yet.