Security News > 2022 > January > Multi-day IT systems outage whacks umbrella biz Parasol Group amid fears of a cyber attack

Contractors employed via umbrella company Parasol Group are increasingly nervous about a multi-day outage of some IT systems used to process payroll, with several suspecting a security attack as the root cause.

Greet Borsens, the chief sales officer at Parasol Group, itself part of Optionis Group, wrote to its contractor customers on 12 January confirming "a systems outage in parts of our group" affecting the MyParasol portal.

A few months ago in September, Giant Group, the umbrella firm with thousands of contractors on its books, confirmed it was targeted by a "Sophisticated" cyberattack that knocked over its IT systems.

"No news has been forthcoming about the nature of the outage," said one contractor that used the umbrella biz, which have proliferated since the IR35 tax reforms were introduced in April last year.

Another said they'd been told by Parasol that contractors are unlikely to be paid until the affected systems are back up and running.

We've asked Borsens to comment via email and LinkedIn and called Parasol Group using its switchboard number and the one provided for Employee Support, although neither number worked.

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