Capita scores £239M contract to manage mega public sector pension scheme
- Reference: 1700559014
- News link: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2023/11/21/capita_wins_239m_contract_to/
- Source link:
The CPSPS is among the UK’s largest public sector pension schemes, and is clearly comfortable with Capita’s handling of a major security breach in [1]March that saw customer information, including pension data, exfiltrated by criminals.
In a [2]contract award notice to the London Stock Exchange, Capita confirmed the Cabinet Office contract begins from September 2025. The role the company plays is to include modernizing pension admin systems.
[3]
This apparently will be done through “enhanced system design and digital innovation,” according to Capita.
[4]
[5]
Not content, the outsourcer is also threatening to integrate generative AI to give pension holders personalized and “engaging digital channels” to prepare for and manage their retirement.
Capita said in a statement:
[6]
“Enhancing the end-to-end customer experience will create more intuitive and innovative interactions for both our client and pension members, while providing the insights to support a data driven approach for employers within the scheme.”
In addition, Capita will be in charge of pensions payroll admim services related to the Civil Service Compensation Scheme and the Civil Service Injury Benefit Scheme, as well as related finance and accounting services.
[7]Capita staffers told attackers stole data from its own pension fund
[8]Capita class action: 2,000 folks affected by data theft sign up
[9]Capita wins £50M fraud reporting contract with City of London cops
[10]Another security calamity for Capita: An unsecured AWS bucket
[11]More UK councils caught by Capita's open AWS bucket blunder
All this is a validation of Capita by UK government following the embarrassing digital burglary the company suffered in [12]late March . Capita discovered a person or persons had broken into its infrastructure so it shut down some systems. The exact route of entry has yet to be detailed by the company.
Ransomware gang [13]Black Basta claimed responsibility , and purported to leak some information including bank account information, addresses and passport photos. Capita initially said 4 percent of its servers were accessed but after part of an investigation downgraded this to 0.1 percent. Nevertheless, pension data was believed to be held on those servers.
The UK’s Pensions Regulator was [14]notified and advised clients to communicate with Capita directly about any risks, perceived or otherwise. And Britain’s largest pension scheme, the Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS), also [15]informed members their data might have been exposed to the criminals behind the breach.
[16]
USS said in May that Capita could not be certain pension data had been stolen but said it was advised by the company that it should work on the assumption it had.
Some 90 organizations have informed the Information Commissioner’s Office that their data was caught up in the breach.
The cost of cleaning the breach was estimated by Capita earlier in the summer to be near to £25 million ($31 million).
Capita already administers 450 pension schemes in Britain with 4.3 million members. ®
Get our [17]Tech Resources
[1] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/capita_breach_gets_worse/
[2] https://www.londonstockexchange.com/news-article/CPI/capita-selected-to-administer-the-civil-service-pension-scheme/16215680
[3] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=2&c=2ZVyN023ldsSgNJIt-DCmRQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D2%26raptor%3Dcondor%26pos%3Dtop%26test%3D0
[4] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVyN023ldsSgNJIt-DCmRQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[5] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVyN023ldsSgNJIt-DCmRQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[6] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=4&c=44ZVyN023ldsSgNJIt-DCmRQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D4%26raptor%3Dfalcon%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[7] https://www.theregister.com/2023/07/07/capita_pension_cyber_attack/
[8] https://www.theregister.com/2023/09/13/capita_class_action_2000_claimants/
[9] https://www.theregister.com/2023/06/14/capita_city_of_london_fraud_reporting_service_contract/
[10] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/17/another_security_calamity_for_capita/
[11] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/22/capita_security_pensions_aws_bucket_city_councils/
[12] https://www.theregister.com/2023/03/31/capita_confirms_it_outage/
[13] https://www.theregister.com/2023/04/18/capita_breach_gets_worse/
[14] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/05/capita_pension_data_breach/
[15] https://www.theregister.com/2023/05/12/uks_largest_private_pension_scheme/
[16] https://pubads.g.doubleclick.net/gampad/jump?co=1&iu=/6978/reg_onprem/publicsector&sz=300x50%7C300x100%7C300x250%7C300x251%7C300x252%7C300x600%7C300x601&tile=3&c=33ZVyN023ldsSgNJIt-DCmRQAAAMY&t=ct%3Dns%26unitnum%3D3%26raptor%3Deagle%26pos%3Dmid%26test%3D0
[17] https://whitepapers.theregister.com/
Re: WTF
This is a joke, right? I've checked the calendar and it's not April 1st, perhaps there's a Black Tuesday Fool's day now?
This can't be real.
Re: WTF
It's not incompetence, it's corruption.
They aren't dumb - they know exactly what they are doing, and getting some lovely backhanders somewhere for it. Or they have shares, or whatever.
Nobody who was merely incompetent would be dumb enough to do this. They are instead incredibly competent, will be making money and chums hand over fist, are doing it explicitly and deliberately, and know PRECISELY that they will get away with it long enough to be profitable because there is no oversight and what oversight there is will be complicit anyway.
Every facet of Capita's, and similar company's, work is predicated on this happening. Bids are made so that someone goes "Oh well, guess we'll have to use Capita *again*, because nobody else is bidding on this incredibly dumb, specific, doomed-to-fail, over-priced project that we change the specs to every week".
I have to say, since passing the age 40, I've totally given up caring because there is nobody in power, or with any chance of power, that will end this. Capita etc. will continue on for centuries like this, and never be brought to account, and successions of multiple governments of all colours will all do exactly the same once they get into power too.
It simply doesn't matter how bad these providers, or politicians, are any more. Nothing changes. Nothing ever stops. Things just move from one hive of corruption to the next.
We've got a layer of people in charge, behind a glass ceiling, who couldn't care less and are in it only for personal profit.
Capita was founded in 1984 with the express purpose of being this company that they are. Nothing's changed, they've just got bigger and with more fingers in more pies. In 2006 the chairman resigned because of links to donations to Labour, etc. Nothing changes. It's a personal profit machine and nobody with the power to do so will shut it down. Same for countless dozens of other quangos.
Complete madness
"to integrate generative AI to give pension holders personalized and “engaging digital channels” to prepare for and manage their retirement."
Why? Just why? All I need is a spreadsheet with some figures on it.
Re: Complete madness
Me: "AI Please calculate when I can retire comfortably?"
AI: "I'm afraid that isn't possible. You will be working until you die. My suggestion would be to cut out the remaining years of hard work and crushed dreams..."
Un-be-liev-able
I think I'm just going to have to start investing in Capita stock. They fail and fail again, and yet they still keep on raking in the millions.
Does Capita have dirt on the current administrative officials ? And their spouses ? And their children ?
Just wondering . . .
Re: Un-be-liev-able
Capita is a poor stock to own, it is at a lower price than it was in 1995 and they haven't been paying dividends in years. Somehow they keep losing money.
Dear God, I'm knee deep in bullshit.
"Enhancing the end-to-end customer experience will create more intuitive and innovative interactions"
"Capita has scooped up a ten-year £239 million ($298 million) contract..."
" The cost of cleaning the breach was estimated by Capita earlier in the summer to be near to £25 million ($31 million). "
They're not quite covering their costs -- at one breach a year they'll finish up in the red by around £11 million.
WTF
I just cannot believe that this has been approved and it shows the unbelievable level of incompetence in procurement.
After the USS fiasco, Captia should have been immediately blocked from the process.
We are in the crazy situation where it simply does not matter how bad these outsourcing operators are, they are still guaranteed more contracts.