Supporters of the Royal National Lifeboat Institution (RNLI) have been warned that their personal information could have been stolen by hackers amid targeting of the charity by far-right agitators.
In a letter accompanying the autumn copy of its Lifeboat magazine, the charity warned members that their “name, contact details and records of interactions with the RNLI” could have been breached in the raid on a company it uses for customer relationship management.
The Telegraph, which first reported the story, said the RNLI told its supporters that Beacon CRM advised the RNLI to “assume that data held within its systems was taken” in a cyber-attack that affected about ۱,۵۰۰ charities in late July.
The letter added that there was no evidence to date that there had been misuse, sharing or publication of members’ personal data. But news of the breach comes as the RNLI has been targeted by people who object to the lifeboat charity going to the aid of people trying to get to the UK on small boats.
On Thursday, it emerged that a lifeboat station in Portsmouth, close to where far-right activists tried to stop asylum seekers landing, had been forced to temporarily shut.
On Sunday ۶ September, activists tried to blockade the road leading to a landing spot where two RNLI crews helped bring a dinghy carrying ۱۲۰ asylum seekers to Eastney in Portsmouth, a few hundred metres from the lifeboat station. Police officers were injured.
In the days after, lifeboat crew members were called traitors and protests took place against the charity, including at the RNLI headquarters in nearby Poole, where a museum telling the story of the RNLI closed temporarily.
Portsmouth lifeboat station took down its Facebook page and RNLI volunteers across the UK were told that they should consider not wearing the charity’s branded clothing if they felt it could put them at risk.
after newsletter promotion
The RNLI vice-president, Sir Robin Knox-Johnston, condemned the intimidation aimed at staff and volunteers, including “online and physical abuse”, as “frankly quite disgraceful”. Far-right protesters had called for people to stop donating to the charity, but it reported that it had subsequently experienced a “significant” boost to its fundraising.
It has stressed that only ۱.۲% of its rescue work last year – ۱۰۹ callouts out of ۹,۰۵۸ – was to small boats in the Channel.
A report on the hack published by Beacon CRM earlier this month said there was no evidence that it was a targeted attack on Beacon or any specific customer, and that the cyber-attacker had contacted it “only to indicate they would be deleting any data they have exfiltrated and no copy would be retained, sold, or shared”.
A spokesperson for the RNLI said: “Beacon CRM works with many charities and organisations across the UK and Ireland, and while they cannot confirm exactly which records were accessed or downloaded, it advised all affected organisations, including the RNLI, to assume that data held within its systems was taken.
“At this stage, there is no evidence that information relating to RNLI supporters has been published, shared online or otherwise misused.”
