Capita IT Systems Outage Raises Concerns of Cyber-Attack on Crucial UK Services

Capita, a UK-based outsourcing group, is currently facing technical issues that have caused its computer systems to abruptly stop working, potentially knocking out local council phone lines. The incident has raised concerns about the possibility of a cyber-attack on the company that runs critical operations for the NHS and the military. Capita staff have been unable to access IT systems since the early hours of Friday, and an investigation is currently underway to establish the cause of the issue.

A spokesperson for the company said in a statement that they were aware of the technical issue and are investigating it. However, they were unable to access their own email due to the outage. Capita’s customers include the London boroughs of Barnet, South Oxfordshire, and Barking and Dagenham, whose websites all displayed messages on Friday saying that their benefits, council tax, and business rates contact phone lines were down.

Sources indicate that the National Cyber Security Centre, the Cabinet Office, and other government agencies have been alerted to the incident, given Capita’s role in sensitive areas such as Royal Navy training centers and security at Ministry of Defence bases. Some employees still have access to computers and email, but people at sites including critical national infrastructure have resorted to using radios, pens, and paper.

Capita runs major central government contracts and has contracts worth hundreds of millions of pounds to manage key public services across a broad spread of government departments. Its public service division, whose main customer is the British government, reported revenues of £1.4bn last year, consolidating its position as a key supplier at the heart of the government’s efforts to improve digital services. The company provides primary care support services for the NHS, electronic tagging for the prisons and probation service, recruitment for the British army, maintenance at the UK’s Submarine Training Centre, and fire and rescue operations for the Ministry of Defence, among others.

Capita also operates Transport for London’s road-charging system, covering the congestion charge and ultra-low emissions zone, and the Department for Work and Pensions’ disability payment assessments. It holds a contract with HM Revenue and Customs to automate some of the tax collection authority’s processes and has a £456m contract with the BBC to collect the license fee.

Despite the outage, TfL, which was Capita’s largest public sector customer in 2021-22, with a spend of £140m, stated that its services had not been affected. The investigation is still in the early stages, and it is too soon to tell if the failure was caused by a cyber-attack. Capita employs over 50,000 people in the UK, and the outage has impacted their ability to work efficiently.