Deloitte says ‘very few’ clients affected by cyber attack

Professional services firm Deloitte has said "very few" clients globally were impacted by a cyber attack that compromised confidential emails related to the firm's work.

Deloitte provides auditing, tax, consultancy and cyber security advice to some of the world’s biggest banks, multinationals, media enterprises, pharmaceutical companies and government agencies.

It discovered the hack in March, but it’s understood the perpetrators may have had access to its systems since October or November of last year.

The firm has carried out a review of its security systems following the breach.

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Incident

"Deloitte's response to the cyber incident included implementing its comprehensive security protocol and initiating an intensive and thorough review which included mobilising a team of cyber-security and confidentiality experts inside and outside of Deloitte," the firm said in a statement to The Irish Times.

Deloitte said it contacted governmental authorities “immediately” after it became aware of the incident, as well as each of the clients impacted. It could not say whether any Irish clients had been affected.

The attacker accessed data from an email platform. A review of that platform is complete. “Importantly, the review enabled us to understand precisely what information was at risk and what the hacker actually did,” said the company.

Committed

The review also allowed Deloitte to determine that no disruption occurred to client businesses, to its ability to continue to serve clients, or to consumers.

“Deloitte remains deeply committed to ensuring that its cyber-security defences are best in class, to investing heavily in protecting confidential information and to continually reviewing and enhancing cyber security,” added the statement.

Deloitte overtook rival PwC earlier this month to become the second largest of the Republic's "big four" accounting and professional services firms.

The Irish arm of the global firm recorded a 14 per cent increase in revenue to €285 million last year, pushing it into second spot behind KPMG.