Perpetual is still facing ongoing disruptions as its customer-facing systems remain offline for an extended period. Despite the lack of attributed financial impact in their recently released annual results, a recent disclosure reveals the establishment of a dedicated technology and cyber security committee at the board level, underpinning the seriousness of the incident.
While no financial implications have been directly linked to the breach in the company’s recent annual results, a footnote in one of the disclosure documents indicated that a board-level technology and cyber security committee was formed earlier this month. This committee is led from Perpetual’s US office, with members spanning across Australia, the US, and the UK.
Regarding the current status of the outage affecting its MyPerpetual platform, a recent statement posted on the company’s website acknowledged the continued challenges: “Work is ongoing to restore online services impacted by an extended outage resulting from an IT security incident on a third-party provided system. Unfortunately, we are unable to provide a definite timeframe for full restoration, and myPerpetual will remain inaccessible for the next several weeks.”
Perpetual temporarily shut down certain core systems
The disruption traces back to June, when Perpetual made the decision to take its systems offline due to unauthorized access experienced by a third-party registry provider. Subsequently, by the end of June, it was disclosed that the breach had led to the compromise of some customer data. However, the breach was limited in scope, with sensitive information such as bank account details being encrypted. In a precautionary measure, Perpetual temporarily shut down certain core systems to contain the incident and prevent any further propagation of the breach.
As Perpetual continues its efforts to resolve the situation, the prolonged outage underscores the intricate challenges companies face in restoring systems and ensuring cybersecurity in the wake of a breach. The establishment of a specialized technology and cyber security committee reflects the organization’s dedication to preventing such incidents in the future and managing their consequences effectively.
