Earlier this week, the servers on which our managed cloud infrastructure is hosted experienced a significant failure.
Since Tuesday morning, we have been without access to our main computer system, although email access has been subsequently restored.
We are working closely with our IT providers to regain systems access and then to restore an earlier backup of our data.
As things stand, we are expecting to have system access restored by Monday morning, with a backup of data as at the end of August. This means that the team will have lost some of their most recent work, but they are working diligently to fill any missing gaps based on files sent internally via our secure messaging system.
Our IT provider has confirmed that no data was stolen during the incident that caused this significant system failure. We spend a great deal of time and money to ensure that our systems are as secure as possible, using a variety of measures including encryption, firewalls, two-factor authentication, and malware/virus protection software.
While this IT drama is disruptive at an already busy time for the business, our team is working flat out to ensure they will be quickly back on track once system access is restored.
In the meantime, despite no data theft, our advice to clients regarding the security of personal or financial information remains the same; please take care out there.
Throughout the pandemic, we have witnessed a surge in online and real-world scam attempts, as a period of economic and social unrest creates conditions ripe for fraudsters.
Make sure you are running up-to-date antivirus and anti-malware software on your devices. Only open emails and click on links if you are confident of the source of the sender.
Do not willingly give away your information to strangers. The number of inane Facebook posts we see that are blatantly for the purposes of data harvesting is shocking, and you should never comment on social media posts giving away the name of your first school or other details potentially useful to hackers.
If in doubt, pause and think carefully before your next action. When we get pressured into action, that’s when we are most likely to fall victim.
If you were expecting to hear from Informed Choice this week, do send an email to your usual point of contact. Our task management system is still offline, but should be back along with the rest of our systems by Monday morning.
