A 45-year-old man has been arrested in Falkirk, Scotland, after a “relentless” cyber attack on the systems of a health charity based in Runcorn, Cheshire, police have said.
Cheshire Police told Third Sector that it was unable to disclose the charity’s name, but said that it was a Runcorn-based health-related charity that provides support for hundreds of people across the UK.
Over the past four months, the charity fell victim to a cyber attack that affected its social media accounts, emails and finance systems, police said.
They said that on Monday, officers from Cheshire Police’s cyber crime unit arrested a 45-year-old man in Carron, Falkirk, on suspicion of computer misuse and fraud.
The man, who has not been named, was taken to Cheshire for questioning and had since been released under investigation, police said.
A number of items were also recovered from the property, police added, including computers, mobile devices and hard drives.
Detective Constable Hannah Clement, a specialist cyber investigator, said that the warrant followed a “complex investigation in relation to an illegal hacking” of the Runcorn-based charity.
She said: “Over the past four months the charity, which provides valuable support for hundreds of people across the UK, has come under a relentless attack.”
Clement said that during this time, several of the charity’s systems were hacked, including its social media accounts, emails and finance systems.
“Not only has this caused a huge inconvenience to the charity, but the scale and impact of the attacks has been so large that it has now become a threat to their very existence,” she said.
The Charity Commission was unable to confirm whether it had received a serious incident report relating to the cyber attack because the name of the charity has not been publicly confirmed.