Conveyancers affected by the cyber incident at infrastructure provider CTS are “doing their best” to get people moved as the outage enters its second week. The incident was first reported last Wednesday (22nd) and confirmed by CTS in a statement on Thursday which said it was working “around the clock with the assistance of third-party experts (to) restore services.”
Firms appear to have been affected in different ways depending on their use of cloud technologies. Some have no access to emails, case management or phone systems, while others have limited access to emails. Today’s Conveyancer has spoken to a number of affected firms throughout the week for updates on case progression and completions.
One firm, who wished to remain anonymous, explained they had been working “outside the box” to ensure that completions could happen with manual workarounds, albeit they explained, it was taking “10 times longer.”
They admitted they had not been able to access their case management system since the attack and had been “piecing files together” as they went along; with no access to matters they were reliant on sent and deleted emails to access search reports, enquiries and other information. In time, once access has been restored, there is also a piece of work to be done to re-input all this information back on to the case management system once it’s back up and running, they said.
Firms have confirmed that while CTS have remained in contact with them, there have been no definitive timescales provided on a restoration of services. At the time of publishing the CTS website still carries the same update published on Friday and Today’s Conveyancer has reached out for further updates. If a criminal investigation is underway, that may restrict the flow of information that can be shared to safeguard the integrity of the investigation.
One concern that has arisen in the last 48 hours is the issue of lender panels restricting or suspending access to services for affected firms. It has come to light that firms have been contacted to ask if they are affected with the risk their panel membership may be suspended.
“It’s galling,” said a spokesperson from another affected firm. “I don’t understand the thinking; we aren’t compromised. We’ve done checks on our bank account logins and verified all our transactions to ensure that no money has been affected. The money in our client account is secure and all our passwords have been changed.”
“Despite how hard affected firms are working, we could have the rug pulled from under our feet by pulling funding. This could get a lot worse for home movers” they added.
Today’s Conveyancer has approached LMS and Lender Exchange for comment.
“LMS believes it is imperative that we continue to do everything that we can to support the progression of transactions to keep customer and client detriment to the absolute minimum. There is no direct impact on LMS systems and processes therefore we are providing supporting resources wherever we can to help progress matters. LMS will continue to provide all Panel Link law firms with secure access to lender information via our Conveyancer Zone Portal.”
Says Nick Chadbourne, CEO of LMS, adding.
“We continue to work closely with all lender clients and impacted law firms. Whilst clearly the incident has had a significant effect on a proportion of firms on the LMS panel, the vast majority of firms and borrowers will not be affected.”
There is a huge amount of empathy for home movers from across the industry, and conveyancers are working hard to get people moved. Many have shared their thoughts on the coverage in the national press which has been unhelpful, and firms are working to ensure as many of their clients are as unaffected as possible; as one firm put it to Today’s Conveyancer, “it’s testament to our efforts that many home movers are simply unaware of the problem, and the lengths we are going to, to get them moved.”
11 Responses
First, I have utmost sympathy for the innocent conveyancers and clients involved the whole process is galling. Second, I am told that the firms affected are still taking on new matters and agents are still referring knowing the problems. This is disgraceful and the SRA should put a stop to this straight away. Third, the only thing that the SRA/CLC have said is that the affected firms should be communicating with chains. I can tell all for certain that is not happening, this is weak from the regulatory bodies and we are having to chase the affected firms for answers/updates. Fourth, I am stuck in chains with affected firms and they cannot issue contracts. Have we all forgotten about responsibility to our clients. Why is a workaround not being found to move the affected clients to new firms? When this mess does sort itself out the catch up and backlog is going to be absolutely horrendous. Any thoughts of acting in clients best interest is seemingly going out of the window in places.
I completely agree and I am on the same boat. Our transaction was scheduled on 4th December. We never received any communication from the affected law firm. I was worried and somehow managed to talk to LMS. The bigger issue is that our mortgage offer is scheduled to expire on 19th December and in this circumstances I don’t know what is going to happen. I am really appalled by lack of communication.
This situation is an absolute nightmare, I am in an affected chain and solicitors and agents do not want to take actions to get it resolved, they would rather wait to see what happens. We have suggested new solicitors and pretty much been brushed off, so seeing your comment ‘Why is a workaround not being found to move the affected clients to new firms? When this mess does sort itself out the catch up and backlog is going to be absolutely horrendous. Any thoughts of acting in clients best interest is seemingly going out of the window in places’ has made me realise that I am not a million miles away to helping with our chain.
Issue started on 22nd when I had completed all the steps for my re-mortgage. Since then, I was told nothing. I have not been contacted by the firm dealing with my case. When I call them it’s “Unless it’s a general information query we cannot help you at the moment”. I have to google to try find some information and yet again it looks like lights are sealed everywhere!
As a customer, I am not assuming the worst: all my personal and financial data have been compromised and likely it will be next year until it is sorted and I might loose my home before that, because who cares about the end customer am I right ?
We have been told today we should be back up and running very early next week.
We have used workarounds for completions. Despite long hours not all have gone through as hoped for on the agreed date but nearly 95% have which given the circumstances I doubt the firm could have done any better. As in most areas of life you only hear about those that go wrong …
We have also developed a workaround for at least some ongoing work to be done.
A big problem is lenders suspending us from their legal panels which has paralysed us in a number of matters and unable to do anything meaningful on those files. We have started getting back on the panels as of today so hopefully that will all be resolved in coming days too.
An awful situation for all involved I’m afraid.
I hope you’re Taylor Rose conveyancer as it gives me some hope that things will get back on track. It’s very frustrating no one has any answers.
Taylor Rose in Peterborough have said they should be able to exchange for us today. someone in the middle of our chain is with them. Things are definitely moving.
Hey Did you manage to exchange on the 1st? I’m with Taylor rose too and still no news
Seems the problem here is Lender Exchange being concerned about their own weak systems and asking more of the CTS effected (proven safe) firms than every other firm on their panel!
It beggars belief that these firms do not appear to have a disaster recovery plan. Most commercial organisations of any size would have a DR plan which could spring into action in these circumstances. What an appalling industry this is and it appears to me like these organisations are lambs to the slaughter as regards IT. To be so totally dependant on a single system seems reckless.
Solicitors and conveyancers will only implement corrective and protective measures against further attacks if they are either forced to do so by regulation or legislation or if the cost of doing nothing outweighs the cost of remedial action.