Government knew legal aid IT was vulnerable before breach
Britain’s justice ministry knew hackers could target legal aid computers since 2021, but security upgrades helped detect the breach that disrupted lawyer payments for months. Officials told Parliament that attackers entered the system on Dec. 31, 2024, though the Legal Aid Agency discovered the intrusion on April 23 after routine monitoring.
The agency rated its technology as extremely high risk and has spent 32 million pounds since 2022 strengthening defenses. Ministry permanent secretary Jo Farrar said a 2023 review prompted 10.5 million pounds in emergency repairs. Workers shut down systems on May 16 after receiving a message from the hackers.
Deputy Chief Jane Harbottle told lawmakers that 48 separate systems store information across 120 components, with no complete files. She said determining how many people lost data remains difficult because the records are scattered across transactions rather than unified documents. The government listed legal aid technology as vulnerable four years before the attack.
