Vet firm CVS hit by cyber-attack

Vet group CVS says it has been hit by a cyber-attack which has caused “considerable” disruption, particularly to its UK business.

CVS, which runs about 500 veterinary practices globally and employs more than 9,000 people, said it had taken immediate action and its IT services had now been “securely restored” across most of the group.

However, it added its business could still be affected as some systems were not working as efficiently as before.

CVS did not say what data had been accessed, but said it had informed authorities “due to the risk of malicious access to personal information”.

The company, which operates in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland, said it had taken its IT systems offline temporarily when the attack had been discovered.

While this had caused “considerable operational disruption over the past week”, it had been effective in preventing further access to its systems.

CVS said that while its UK business had been disrupted, outside the UK it remained “operationally unaffected”.

The company added that, as a result of the attack, it was speeding up plans to move its practice management system and related IT infrastructure to the cloud.

This move, together with added security measures, was likely to have an impact on its operations “for a number of weeks”, CVS said.