CVS Group UK arm hit by cyber attack

Veterinary group CVS has confirmed that it fell victim to a cyber-attack, causing significant disruption to its operations, mainly in the UK.

While CVS did not specify the nature of the data that was accessed, they emphasised the potential risk to the information of their customers, prompting the company to notify the ICO (Information Commissioner's Office) who are currently assessing the situation.

With approximately 500 veterinary practices worldwide, including 450 in the UK, this attack caused significant issues for CVS. They took immediate action to restore their IT services across most of their network. However, lingering effects on efficiency persist due to some systems still not functioning at full capacity.

Despite the challenges faced, CVS managed to prevent further unauthorised access by taking their IT systems offline for a short time upon detecting the attack. Fortunately, operations outside the UK remained unaffected.

In response to the breach, CVS is accelerating their plans to transition their practice management system and associated IT infrastructure to the cloud. This move along with their commitment to implementing increased security measures should help to mitigate any further attacks. However, this could also cause a period of decreased efficiency due to the new IT practices.