The news about our cyber-fraud has led to a number of questions, so we thought it would be helpful to share these FAQs with you. If you have further questions please email us via communications@redkitehousing.org.uk and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
The exact amount was £932,691.48, but this does not impact on our ability to deliver the same level of service as before and we still remain financially strong.
The fraud will have no impact on our rents. Rents were always due to be reviewed from 1st April and we will shortly be writing to all tenants – as we do every year - to let them know what their rent is for 2020/2021.
We were the victims of a sophisticated fraudulent attack; our systems were not compromised but we believe those of one of our external business sources were. We failed to follow a key process. Had the check set out in the process been followed we would have detected the fraud. It is this single point of failure that we have addressed in our internal review of learning and changes required that feature in an action.
No, we are confident that our IT Systems were not hacked into, which means no customer or sensitive data has been placed at risk. We carried out an internal review which was validated by external cyber specialists.
Yes, we reported it to the police, our insurers, and the Regulator of Social Housing.
We have now been given approval by the police to speak publicly about the fraud, and the Regulator had embargoed their decision to downgrade our governance score until 29th January 2020.
We commenced an internal enquiry/review without delay, supported by a leading external cybersecurity and financial investigation specialist.
We are unable to disclose if any action was taken against individual members of staff.
There was a breach of an external source’s computer system which enabled criminals to launch a fraudulent attack on us. Typically, criminals intercept emails and request a change of bank details, replicating invoices with altered bank details. Our failure to then follow an internal process allowed payment to be made to the fraudsters' account. This process was industry-standard but we have made improvements to this to minimise the chances of this happening again.
The money lost doesn’t have any impact on our day-to-day business. We are financially strong and still able to pay our suppliers, staff and contractors. We have recently refinanced our loans which has saved approximately £1.1m, meaning this strengthens our financial position.
Yes, the police are actively investigating.
No, but the police investigation is ongoing.
