As previously indicated, the Health Research Council’s IT environment was impacted by a cyber security incident in December, just before Christmas. While we cannot go into details, the HRC was able to successfully continue its day-to-day operations.
Thank you for your support and patience while we carried out a thorough investigation to fully understand how our systems were compromised. With this analysis now completed, independent investigators have advised the HRC that to the best of their knowledge at the end of the investigation, there was no evidence to suggest that any files were exfiltrated from our systems.
We have also been advised that the people behind such incidents can monitor media and other digital commentary, and use that commentary to further their malicious activity. On this basis, we will not be making further comments on the nature of this incident or the findings.
Once again, thank you for your support, and please be assured we are considering and already acting on the knowledge gained from our investigations.