Leading umbrella company Giant Pay was forced to close down their systems on Friday 24th September due to “suspicious activity”. As a result, thousands of contractors have been left unpaid. Here is what we know so far. We sincerely hope the matter is resolved soon. If you use Giant Pay or work at Giant Pay, please share your comments below, and we’ll publish your thoughts and insight.
An overview
It appears that Giant Pay – one of the UK’s most well-known umbrella companies, has been struck by a cyber threat that has caused chaos. As things stand, Giant Pay’s systems are offline as they liaise with “IT experts and specialist lawyers”, and thousands of contractors are left without their wages.
Giant Pay announcement on website – Friday 24th September 2021
Upon detection of suspicious activity on our network on 22nd September 2021, we immediately assembled a response team including IT data experts and specialist lawyers, and we are currently working with the highest priority to resolve this issue. As part of the investigation and as a measure of caution, we have proactively taken our systems offline and suspended all services temporarily. We are also liaising with the appropriate authorities to investigate and remediate the situation. We can confirm that our databases are encrypted.
We appreciate that getting paid in a timely manner is of the utmost importance and this is a responsibility we take extremely seriously. We are working hard to ensure as minimal disruption to payment schedules as possible, and we will confirm that your payroll is back to normal at the earliest opportunity. Where possible, an interim payment will be made to you today, 24 September.
We apologise for the disruption and appreciate your patience whilst we investigate this matter and work to restore functionality.
Giant Pay update on website – Sunday 26th September 2021
We wanted to update you on progress since we were forced to temporarily close down our systems as we appreciate this is a situation that has affected many people.
Our absolute priority has been to get people paid and we have made 8,000 payments since last week.
We are on track to have our phone lines open from 10:30 am on Monday alongside our live chat so that we can again communicate properly with you.
We appreciate the situation has been concerning and frustrating and apologise sincerely to those who we haven’t been able to pay yet and to anyone who has experienced issues getting through to us.
We will continue to work around the clock to address the situation and to post updates via our website and portal.
Giant Pay update on website – Monday 27th September 2021 (AM)
We were on track to get all our systems back this morning, we have been working through the night and we anticipate we will have our giant finance+ and giant precision portals back online this morning. Our giant screening portals were unaffected. We are still working hard to get the giant umbrella & giant accounts portals fully operational.
Once all systems are back up and running, our phone lines will be open. Please visit our website throughout the day for more updates.
Giant Pay update on website – Monday 27th September 2021 (PM)
Thank you for your continued patience whilst we work around the clock to bring giant back to business as usual.
We can confirm that Giant Group was the victim of a sophisticated cyber-attack on September 22nd. International law firm Crowell & Moring immediately put in place a team of experts in the US, UK and Brussels who have been carrying out necessary steps as part of the ongoing investigation. Together, we continue to work with our insurers, the ICO and the NCA on the investigation, alongside a number of other specialist advisers and have been sharing updates as soon as we are advised that it is safe to do so.
We can confirm that giant screening was unaffected and the giant finance+ and giant precision portals are now up and running.
Although we had no portals to operate from, we managed to pay over 8,000 workers last week. We appreciate that not everyone would have received their expected payment and for that we are sincerely sorry. We are aiming to be able to process your payroll and pay you by Friday.
We know everyone is frustrated about the lack of communication and we’d like to offer an explanation; our phone and email systems are integrated in our network and IT infrastructure. As a result, when we had to close the whole network, our phone and email systems were inaccessible. With instances related to a cyber-attack, there are certain protocols that must be followed to ensure that the integrity of the investigation is not compromised and therefore we unfortunately were unable to communicate with you as openly as we wanted to.
We are currently working on a technical issue that is preventing us from getting the giant umbrella and giant accounts portals back up and running. We are doing everything we can to resolve this so that we can then begin our conversations with you.
We will continue to share information with you as soon as we are able. We understand the disruption and frustration that the attack has caused, and we sincerely apologise for the inconvenience.
Please refer to our websites (www.giantpay.co.uk and www.giantgroup.com) for further updates and FAQ’s including when the umbrella / accounts portals are back up and running.
Giant Pay update on website – Wednesday 29th September 2021
We would like to sincerely apologise for the inconvenience and frustration you have experienced as a result of the cyber-attack to our network on the 22nd September 2021. With instances related to a cyber-attack, there are certain protocols that must be followed to ensure that the integrity of the investigation is not compromised and therefore we unfortunately were unable to communicate with you as quickly and openly as we wanted to.
We can now confirm that your portals are up and running as usual. If you normally enter a timesheet, please do so at your earliest convenience. We are now on track to pay you by Friday this week for any timesheets not processed last week. This will be paid together with any additional timesheets we have since received.
You may experience a few teething problems with the portal at first, but our teams will be available to support you via your portal, live chat and phones from 9am Wednesday 29th September 2021.
Where possible, we would please ask you to initially contact us through portal feedback or live chat, as we anticipate pressure on our phone lines while we get back to normal.
Please refer to our websites (www.giantpay.co.uk and www.giantgroup.com) for further updates and FAQ’s.
Giant Pay update on website – Friday 1st October 2021
Since Friday 24th September we’ve made over 18,000 payments to workers and processed and paid all outstanding payrolls. All payrolls and payments are now being processed in line with your usual payroll schedule.
If you have any queries regarding payments or the payment advances we have made to you, please contact our support team via your portal, live chat or phone.
We would like to take this opportunity to again apologise for the inconvenience caused and thank all of you who have sent us messages of support during what has been a very challenging time for our contractor workforce.
Umbrellacompanies.org.uk sends our best wishes to all those impacted by these unfortunate events
We want to offer our best wishes to everyone at Giant Pay and all of their umbrella company employees. We hope this issue is resolved shortly and all payments are made without any further delay. It is a shame that evil scammers can significantly impact a business with an excellent reputation and thousands of employees who deserve their hard-earned money without complication.
Some of the comments online are very difficult to read. Abuse is being hurled at Giant Pay by umbrella employees and stakeholders. Until we know the facts of the situation, we’re not prepared to comment.
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If you’re an employee of Giant Pay, we hope the situation is resolved quickly and your payroll is processed efficiently. Should you wish to switch umbrella companies, we recommend one of our top 10 umbrella companies.
