JERSEY Heritage members are being warned that their personal information – including bank account number and sort code – may have been accessed by hackers.
The alert was raised after the finance company which processes the organisation’s membership direct debits reported that it may have been “subjected to a data privacy incident”.
In a letter to its members, Jersey Heritage said it was in discussion with the firm to determine whether any of its customers’ data had been compromised.
It said that matters were “at a very early stage”, but it has been told that “an unauthorised third party may have accessed and/or copied certain files containing personal information from servers hosting the direct debit portal” and that the data concerned was limited to “customer name, sort code and bank account number”.
The organisation, which runs sites including Mont Orgueil Castle, La Hougue Bie and the Maritime Museum, is now urging members to monitor their accounts for suspicious or unauthorised transactions.
The letter adds: “You should also be particularly vigilant in relation to any unexpected contact or correspondence from any source concerning your account.”
In a statement to the JEP, Jon Carter, chief executive of Jersey Heritage, said: “This potential incident is not a result of Jersey Heritage’s own systems having been compromised or attacked.
“However, we can confirm that we have been alerted by the relevant financial institution, which processes our membership direct debits, that it may have been subjected to a data privacy incident.
“At this early stage, we do not know whether any member’s data has been compromised, simply that the financial institution which processes this data is aware of a potential incident.
“As the privacy of our members is a priority, we have been in touch with everyone who is potentially affected.
“We take incidents like this very seriously and have also notified the Jersey Office of the Information Commissioner and remain in daily contact with the financial institution as they carry out their investigation into this potential attack.”
