Flagship Group falls subject to a cyberattack

On Sunday 1st November 2020, a major IT incident occurred, taking most of our Group systems
offline, and limiting some of our services. On discovering this, as a precautionary measure, Flagship
immediately took all their systems offline to prevent the issue spreading further across our network.

Whilst the investigation is still ongoing by internal and external specialists, Flagship can confirm that the incident was caused by ransomware, known as Sodinokibi, via a suspected phishing attack.

Flagship have continued to proactively take steps to contain the spread of the ransomware, which have
been successful. They can confirm that despite their quick action, there has been some data
encryption, and that some personal customer and staff data has been compromised, but they do
not yet have a complete picture of all the data that has been encrypted.

Having completed the containment stage of  their remediation process, detailed forensic analysis is
fully underway, and they are now working towards recovery of all their systems. Flagship have been able to restore several internal systems and are now working towards resuming normal operations as
quickly as possible.

David McQuade, Chief Executive of Flagship Group said: “We take the privacy and security of our
customer and staff data very seriously, and we’re very sorry that it has been compromised.

“Over the last few days, the incident has caused considerable disruption to staff and customer
services, and we are concentrating on emergency situations, to ensure our customers are safe.

“Our teams are working tirelessly around the clock to bring our systems back online, and we
apologise for any inconvenience this may have caused.”

Flagship has reported the crime to the Police who are conducting their own investigations. The
Group has also notified the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), Action Fraud and the Regulator
of Social Housing, and sought advice from the National Cybersecurity Centre and National Crime
Agency.

For further information, please contact us via telephone 0845 258 6399 or email us, commsteam@flagship-group.co.uk