Police Federation hit by cyber attack

The Police Federation of England and Wales (PFEW) which is the body representing near-120,000 police officers was alerted to a cyber attack on 9th March by its cyber security systems, which triggered experts into isolating the attack and stopping it spreading to its 43 individual branches.

The PFEW has been working with the National Crime Agency (NCA) and Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) to establish whether there could be any more indicators pointing to the scale and effects of the attack.

The initial announcement suggests that the attack was not targeted, though ransomware generally is not sent via a targeted campaign.

They went on to say “There is no evidence at this stage that any data was extracted from the organisation’s systems, although this cannot be discounted and PFEW are taking precautions to notify individuals who may potentially be affected”

We can confirm we have been subject to a malware attack on our computer systems. We were alerted by our own security systems on Saturday 9 March. Cyber experts rapidly reacted to isolate the malware and prevent it from spreading #PFEWCyberAttack pic.twitter.com/8Zi49S82ZM

— Police Federation (@PFEW_HQ) 21 March 2019