The City of London Police has confirmed the arrest of a 32-year-old employee in connection with a high-profile data breach at Sage.
The woman was apprehended at Heathrow Airport, as part of the force’s “ongoing fraud investigation” into the incident at the accounting and payroll software company.
This arrest all but confirms that the unauthorized access to Sage’s systems was as a result of internal security shortcomings.
In announcing that an incident had taken place earlier this week, Sage had revealed that access to data had occurred as a result of an internal login.
As has been reported, the data breach – or data leak to be more specific – may have affected around 280 businesses.
This latest data leak goes to highlight how commonplace these security incidents are becoming, drawing further attention to the importance of good cybersecurity.
Not only are their internal threats, there are also external ones too. For example, the recent spate of data breaches at well-known companies like LinkedIn and Tumblr resulted in a spike in online fraudulent activity.
This resulted in the Internet Crime Complaint Center issuing a public service announcement in June, warning people to be vigilant in the face of opportunistic fraudsters.
In partnership with Get Safe Online, the City of London Police is today (Thursday 18th) taking to the streets of the UK’s capital to raise awareness of online safety.
Detective Inspector Katie Balls said: “Cybercrime is constantly on the rise and we need to do everything we can to stop online criminals from taking advantage of people in the city.”
She later added: “It has been predicted that 80% of fraud and cybercrime is preventable if individuals and businesses follow simple advice.”
