Urgent review of criminal cases following cyberattack on forensic laboratories

Forensic evidence in more than a dozen Scottish criminal cases is being checked after a cyberattack on the private firm assessing samples.

An investigation is under way after Eurofins Scientifics, the UK’s biggest private provider of forensic services, was targeted in the ransomware incident.

It was initially feared as many as 30 Scottish cases could face potential problems or delays following the hack.

However, sources said the number of cases now thought to be involved was 17.

The work was outsourced by the Scottish Police Authority, who deal with forensic science on behalf of Police Scotland, amid a heavy workload and increasingly complex cases.

The SPA hope to retrieve material relating to some of the cases to process it at their own labs in Scotland.

Some cases could face delays while the impact of the attack is fully assessed.

Police forces across the UK were forced to take emergency action and suspend sending forensics work to the company while a probe tried to establish the scale of the incident.

Ransomware is malicious software that prevents users from accessing their system or personal files and sometimes involves threats to publish or destroy data.

The criminals demand a ransom to restore access.

Judges and prosecutors have been alerted to the attack amid fears that evidence could have been manipulated in the incident.

Eurofins Scientifics said: “Staff and security teams took prompt actions to contain the incident and mitigate its impact and have been working around the clock to return IT operations to normal.” They said the majority of operations had been restored.