Vet group is hit by cyber attackers

A LARGE UK veterinary group has been hit with a cyber attack, causing “considerable” disruption to its operations.

FTSE-listed CVS Group, which is based in Norfolk but has sites around the country, including in Exeter, Bristol, Manchester, Birmingham and Glasgow, also warned that personal information could be at risk.

According to the firm, which reported the incident on Monday, the attack involved unauthorised external access to a limited number of its IT systems. The company said it took “immediate steps” to isolate the issue and took its IT systems temporarily offline in response.

“Our responses to contain the threat of malicious activity have caused considerable operational disruption over the past week, but to date have been effective in preventing further external access to CVS systems,” CVS said in a statement. Specialist third-party consultants have been engaged to investigate the nature and extent of the incident and to support the response across the group.”

CVS said it had informed the relevant authorities, including the Information Commissioner’s Offce, due to the risk of malicious access to personal information.

CVS said some systems were not working as “effciently as previously” and would likely result in an “ongoing operational impact”. The group said it would speed up its plans to migrate its practice management system and related IT infrastructure to the ‘cloud,’ but the incident would mean its operational systems are likely to have an impact on its operations for a number of weeks.