Cabot Debt Collectors IT systems not working

[Brendan Burgess]

Website of major debt-collection agency disabled in IT outage

A leading debt-collection agency has been hit with an IT outage that has crippled its systems for days.

www.independent.ie

A leading debt-collection agency has been hit with an IT outage that has crippled its systems for days.
Cabot Financial carries out debt collection on behalf of banks and credit unions in this country. It also bought distressed mortgages in the past. Its website has been disabled by the outage.
A message on the site states: “We are currently experiencing technical difficulties and you may not be able to contact us. For mortgage customers, our telephone lines are now operational. You may experience longer than usual wait times to speak with our agents.

 

[TLO]

There is another aspect to this. IT outages that go on for days are often coupled with unauthorised third party access to the systems in question. The ransomware attack on the HSE is probably the best known.

Was this a ransomware attack?
Were Cabot's IT systems hacked?
If so, has the Data Protection Commissioner been informed?
Has people's personal information that was stored on Cabot's systems been leaked?

There seems to be silence from Cabot on the above. They don't appear to have responded to queries from the Irish Examiner and the Irish Independent.

 

[24601]

There is another aspect to this. IT outages that go on for days are often coupled with unauthorised third party access to the systems in question. The ransomware attack on the HSE is probably the best known.

Was this a ransomware attack?
Were Cabot's IT systems hacked?
If so, has the Data Protection Commissioner been informed?
Has people's personal information that was stored on Cabot's systems been leaked?

There seems to be silence from Cabot on the above. They don't appear to have responded to queries from the Irish Examiner and the Irish Independent.

Hackers may have access to personal details of thousands of customers after debt collection firm attacked

The data breach at one of the State’s largest debt-collection agencies may mean hackers have access to the financial and personal details of thousands of consumers it is dealing with.

www.independent.ie

Cyber attack confirmed.

 

[Brendan Burgess]

That is very serious.

Especially if it records the reasons why people say that they can't pay.