Data breach affects Limerick offices of major financial company

GARDAI are investigating after major Irish financial company FDC Group, which has six offices in Limerick, was targeted by cyber criminals.

The extent of the alleged hacking incident remains unknown.

The Data Protection Commission and An Garda Síochána are investigating the breach. FDC Group has also notified the National Cyber Security Centre and “engaged the support” of Ekco Ltd - a security-first managed cloud provider.

FDC Group, which has 48 offices nationwide, said that it was made aware of “a data security incident involving a subset of our systems”. It occurred on October 7.

In a letter, seen by the Limerick Leader, sent out to its clients on October 23, FDC Group said they are “still in the process of investigating the extent of the breach and determining what specific data may have been affected”.

“We are not certain as to the extent of the incident or what data, if any, is impacted, however, as we continue our investigation, we wanted to share the following as an overview of the personal data we may process on your behalf.”

Included in the subsequent list were clients’ full names, dates of birth, PPS numbers, addresses and contact information, income and bank details, and photos from ID documentation.

At this time, they say they “do not have any evidence to suggest that your personal information was compromised as a result of this incident”. 

“However, out of an abundance of caution, we wanted to notify you of the potential breach and provide you with some information on how to protect yourself.”

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FDC Group advised its clients that, “as a precautionary measure”, they should “monitor for any unusual activities associated with your personal data such as emails, calls or SMS messages and exercise caution when engaging with any such communication”.

The Leader was sent the letter by a reader.

“This just came out of the blue. In fairness to FDC Group they have been very open and transparent but it is worrying. They have a lot of very personal information about people,” said the person, who wished to remain anonymous.

The Data Protection Commission confirmed that it has received a “breach notification” from FDC Group, adding that the incident is “currently under assessment”.

FDC Groups has offices in Kilmallock, Newcastle West, Foynes, O’Connell Street in Limerick city, and two in Abbeyfeale.

In response to a query from the Limerick Leader, a spokesperson for FDC Group said: “The status of our investigation into the data security incident is ongoing”.

“From an operational point of view, FDC's IT systems are fully functional,” the statement continued, adding: “as of the date of writing we have no evidence of any data being compromised but we will continue to monitor the situation.”

The spokesperson concluded by saying: “We take the security and privacy of our client's information very seriously and we are committed to taking all necessary steps to investigate and address the situation.”