Data breach at Home Group affects thousands of users.

On October 21, Home Group, one of the biggest housing associations in the UK with an annual turnover of over £360 million, reported that a data breach affected personal details of thousands of users. The compromised information includes names, addresses, and contact information of nearly 4,000 people.

The aftermath.

The incident was identified with the help of a third-party cybersecurity researcher. Fortunately, it was able to contain the situation within 90 minutes of detection, however, security experts claim that even a window as small as this is enough for attackers to gain access to important records. The affected customers were spread over properties in England, including those in the North-East, North-West, and Yorkshire. Fortunately, no bank or payment details were affected. 

In a statement, John Hudson, chief financial officer at Home Group, said, “We have a robust incident response protocol in place to handle situations such as this, which meant the vulnerability was identified and fixed extremely quickly.” Home Group has taken steps to notify all the affected customers regarding the breach and assured them that it follows strict guidelines and protocols when it comes to data sharing and cybersecurity.

Fortunately, a third-party researcher came to the Home Group’s aid this time. To avoid falling victim to attacks like these, it's important to invest in a tool that will protect your network from brute-force attacks, ransomware threats, and denial-of-service (DoS) attacks. Download ManageEngine Log360, a tool that helps combat both internal and external security attacks.