UK government confirms hackers breached historical justice files going back to 1978

Cybercriminals who infiltrated the UK's Legal Aid Agency in April 2025 took records stretching back nearly five decades, officials acknowledged on Wednesday. Forensic investigators found that about 250,000 compromised files predate 2007, with the oldest verified entry dating to 1978. The breach also extended to HM Prison and Probation Service data covering supervised offenders between 2010 and 2017. [1][2]

The stolen material spans names, contact information, National Insurance numbers, financial details, and case histories, alongside criminal charges, convictions, and sentences. Although the Legal Aid Agency noted that most pre-2007 records originate from the 1990s and 2000s, the Ministry of Justice explained that the fragmented nature of its systems delayed identifying the full scale. Officials stressed that the count of files does not represent a confirmed total of impacted individuals, and they have observed no evidence that the stolen files have been shared or published. [1][2]

The incident has put renewed scrutiny on public data retention and legacy infrastructure. To prevent further breaches, the Ministry of Justice says it has tightened system access and authentication controls, retired higher-risk systems, and committed more than £200 million toward modernizing digital services and security across legal aid operations. [1][2]