The estate agency insisted that no “sensitive data” had been stolen
The estate agency Foxtons suffered a breach to its systems that forced it to shut its customer portal, but the London Stock Exchange-listed group failed to notify customers that their data may be at risk.
It is understood that the company was among a number of businesses which fell victim to a malware attack last Friday, which led to the group shutting down its MyFoxtons portal for home sellers, renters and landlords.
Sources at the estate agency claimed employees had lost access to customer and landlord contact details, although the group insisted that no “sensitive data” had been stolen. Foxtons also confirmed that it had reported the breach to the Information Commissioner’s Office and the National Cyber Crime Agency.
A spokesman said: Foxtons has been subject to a limited malware virus on a small part of the business. It appears many other businesses and organisations have been affected and this was not a targeted attack on Foxtons.
We have effective systems in place and took quick action to contain the incident and minimise disruption to our customers. Current investigations reveal no sensitive data has been compromised, it said.
Customers, however, were angry at the company’s failure to inform them of the breach and said Foxtons had instead told them its systems were undergoing an upgrade.
In 2013, the group was forced to investigate whether hackers had stolen the details of almost 10,000 property hunters following an anonymous leak on a hacking website.
Foxtons posted a 30 per cent drop in annual profit in February with earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation falling to £2.5m.
