Legal Aid Agency hackers made off with records dating back to 1978

Hackers who broke into the UK's Legal Aid Agency last year stole records dating back nearly five decades, the government has admitted, revealing the breach was far more extensive than previously thought. The Legal Aid Agency said on Wednesday that around 250,000 records stolen in the April 2025 attack date from before 2007, including one going back to 1978. That's much further back than the agency previously estimated ­­– it initially said the stolen data covered legal aid applications, claims, and payments from 2007. Most of the newly identified records date from the 1990s and 2000s, with only a “fractionally small number” originating before 1990. Still, the discovery raises an awkward question about just how much historical personal information was sitting in government systems when the attackers came knocking. …