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greengrass

Hi my daughter is due to exchange tomorrow but cannot get through to the above solicitors via phone and their site is down does anyone know what is happening or heard anything please?

Sunsaru

greengrass said:

Hi my daughter is due to exchange tomorrow but cannot get through to the above solicitors via phone and their site is down does anyone know what is happening or heard anything please?

Yea it looks like an outage. They do have a link you can contact them through though

"We are aware and are working to resolve an ongoing systems outage. This involves multiple systems across our business including eWay and ieWay.

We are working non-stop to restore systems and we recognise this could be a difficult time for clients. Our priority is to help customers exchange/complete on time. If you are a customer affected by this outage please click the link https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/C6G-T52/customer-contact-form this will help us prioritise contact. We are doing all we can. Thank you for your patience.

We regret we are not operating as normal. Further updates to follow."

Edited to fix the link.

tryingmybest99

I think they are the same company as the firm I am using (DC Law). I called and apparently, it is due to a security incident on Sunday night. I called the main number so I would suggest your daughter tries then and also try the site again- there is a form to fill in for priority cases (completion yesterday, today and tomorrow) so they can get a callback. 

This is the form- https://r1.dotdigital-pages.com/p/C6G-T52/customer-contact-form

Slithery

If it's just exchange meant to be happening tomorrow the she isn't a priority case.
When is she due to complete?

johnny182

From Trustpilot - sounds like ransomware:
"I’ve just managed to speak to my conveyancer who has phoned me on her private home phone. She tells me the company voluntarily took everything down including phones and emails due to a security breach to protect client information and cash. Specialists are working round the clock trying to sort it out but no idea how long it will take. Made me feel slightly better as due to complete this month."

greengrass

Thank you for  your replies was due to exchange Monday and complete tomorrow but because couldnt get in touch with anyone Monday dont know if exchange went ahead

greengrass

Have completed the link though thank you

Vampgirl

My parents have been caught up in this: they were supposed to complete on Monday but were left with their belongings in a removal van, unable to get in contact with anyone and not knowing what was happening. They stayed with relatives on Monday night and yesterday got confirmation yesterday that their sale is now completed, but PPL say they are unable to transfer the money and so their onward purchase (and the rest of the chain) are still in limbo. So my parents are currently homeless and have no idea when this will all end.

I know that IT systems can go wrong or be attacked, but I've been shocked at the apparent lack of any kind of business continuity planning...it seems that if PPL's main system goes down they have no way of communicating with their customers or even falling back to manual processing for urgent cases.

user1977

Vampgirl said:

I know that IT systems can go wrong or be attacked, but I've been shocked at the apparent lack of any kind of business continuity planning...it seems that if PPL's main system goes down they have no way of communicating with their customers or even falling back to manual processing for urgent cases.

Yes, I don't know why they haven't rolled back to their nightly backup...unless they were daft enough to allow that to be accessible to the hackers too.

Sunsaru

It is not as simple as rolling back. For one that backup might already be compromised. They have to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. Even the most watertight of systems is not perfect.

Vampgirl

user1977 said:
Yes, I don't know why they haven't rolled back to their nightly backup...unless they were daft enough to allow that to be accessible to the hackers too.

Sunsaru said:

It is not as simple as rolling back. For one that backup might already be compromised. They have to go through everything with a fine tooth comb. Even the most watertight of systems is not perfect.

Whatever the actions needed to resolve the problems on the IT side, I think the lack of communication to their clients has been what has caused people the most stress: it appears that without access to their system they don't even have their customers' phone numbers in order to proactively contact them to let them know what's going on. When you combine that with the fact that they were also unreachable when their clients tried calling in, its not surprising that rumours start flying around (hackers, bankruptcy etc..) and people expect the worst. For example my parents' are understandably incredibly worried that the money for their house sale might disappear before it can be transferred for their onward purchase. And whilst they know that it would all be sorted out eventually, that doesn't provide them with somewhere to live in the meantime.

Integrated client management systems are very good when up and running, but there still need to be some way of managing things when the system is inaccessible (for whatever reason).....you can't just go radio-silence and leave your clients in the dark....moving home is stressful enough without having to sofa-surf or find a hotel for an unknown period of time.

Plus there's the possibility of the other parties in the chain seeking to recover their losses following the failure to complete on schedule. I really hope PPL do the right thing and cover these losses and don't make their clients fight for this.