'Pay us £15 million or else:' One Call hackers' ransom demand as police investigate

Hackers have demanded £15 million from Doncaster insurance firm One Call after criminals reportedly seized thousands of customer details in a massive cyber attack.
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The firm was reportedly hacked in the early hours of last Wednesday with the cyber hackers reportedly getting their hands on customers’ account details, passwords and bank details.

The company, which is based in Black Bank, has so far refused to comment and has blamed ongoing problems on IT issues.

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Customers have struggled to get in touch with the firm since last week, with emails, policy documents and telephone lines all blitzed.

But dozens of angry staff have contacted the Free Press accusing the firm of ‘covering-up’ the data breach which is now being investigated by South Yorkshire Police.

And the firm has also been accused of removing comments from its Facebook page from concerned customers asking if the company’s database has been hacked.

According to information seen by the Free Press, the firm was targeted in a so-called ransomware attack – where cyber criminals take down and steal important information in return for a ransom.

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The hacker group, known as Darkside, are reported to have infected staff computers with the message, ‘Welcome to the Darkside,’ followed by a ransom note.

One staff member, who declined to be named said: “All systems and customer data have been stolen by hackers and they don’t have access to it.

"They found this out when they logged on to their systems.

"A message appeared on the screen from the hackers stating if they do not receive £15 million, the data they have will be made public.

"That’s including all customer data such as passwords and bank details.”

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Another angry employee told us: “They tapped into the servers where literally all of our information is stored, meaning they must have consumer and staff personal information.”

The Free Press has made repeated attempts to contact One Call for a statement.

The Yorkshire and the Humber Regional Organised Crime Unit has confirmed it was investigating the incident.

In its latest update, posted on Facebook yesterday, One Call said: "Apologies to those of you whom up to now we haven’t been able to support.

“Thank you for your patience and understanding during what has been a very difficult time.”

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