You may have seen in the news that Capita, who are the administrator of the AXA UK Group Pension Scheme (the "Scheme”), have experienced a cyber incident. Capita have been investigating this incident and the Trustee has been working with them to monitor the situation.
Unfortunately, Capita have reported to us that our Scheme is among those pension schemes that are affected. This means that personal data that Capita processes on behalf of our Scheme has been part of the data that has been taken from them as part of the cyber incident.
We have been contacting everyone who is affected by this incident with information about how they are affected personally.
If you have not already done so, we strongly encourage our members who have been impacted by this issue, to consider taking advantage of the free 12-month service that is offered by Experian. Relevant information regarding how to take out a free 12-month membership of an Experian fraud monitoring service is included in our letter.
We are very sorry this has happened. We have notified the Information Commissioner's Office and the Pensions Regulator in line with legal requirements.
Capita have publicly stated that they have restored impacted services. Capita have confirmed to the Trustee that they have received independent assurance from third party IT experts that Capita’s systems are secure and robust again.
We would remind all our members to be extra vigilant for unusual activity on their accounts, including suspected phishing emails, and other potential scams and/or fraudulent activity. Have a look at the Government National Cyber Security Centre's guidance on data breaches.
Please remember:
- If you receive an unsolicited call or other contact from someone, only give out your personal information if you are happy that the person contacting you is who they say they are.
- Be careful with unexpected emails or texts, especially if they ask you to click on a link or enter your login details or passwords.
- Check your bank statements for any signs of unusual activity in recent weeks and consider checking for any new credit files or credit searches in your name which you don't recognise.
- If in doubt – stop and think. Hang up or end the conversation if you need to. Contact your bank or financial services provider directly if you aren't sure.
- If you have any concerns, please consider contacting your bank, in order that as a minimum they can put an appropriate note on their records. Your bank may also be able to help you with other steps you can take to help protect your account, such as changing PIN numbers, security questions or passwords and reviewing direct debits, standing orders and other payments in and out of your account.
What assistance are the Trustees providing?
We have written directly to all affected members to provide more information and details of the additional assistance we are putting in place to help protect their data. The letter includes information on the option for affected members to take out a free 12-month membership of an Experian fraud monitoring service.
In addition, extra resources are being put on the AXA Pensions Helpline provided by Capita.
We’ve also created a set of FAQs about the cyber incident which you may find useful.
It should be stressed that the Trustee takes the responsibility of protecting member data very seriously. For any questions, in the first instance please can members contact the AXA Pensions Helpline on 0370 1234 701 or the Capita Administration team at AXA-pensions@capita.com