MoveIt hack: What action can data-breach victims take?

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More than 100,000 people have been warned their personal data is in the hands of cyber-criminals as a result of a continuing mass hack.

The BBC, British Airways, Aer Lingus and Boots are among the companies whose staff have been affected by the MoveIt data breach.

And more organisations are expected to issue staff warnings, as the extent of the breach is discovered.

But what action can those caught up in mass hacks take?

Don't panic

In the early stages of an attack such as this, the most pressing advice is aimed at the organisations.

Hackers are not interested in going after individuals - it is too time consuming and they care about one thing only, getting paid.

 

And they will probably send ransom demands to the organisations breached, asking for the cryptocurrency Bitcoin.

"The important message to organisations right now is not to panic, to install the security patch and not to pay the criminals," former National Cyber Security Centre lead Prof Ciaran Martin says.

But once an organisation has been breached, the hackers have the upper hand.

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