No. The free subscription to Experian will not extend beyond the initial 12 months provided to USS members last year. We believe this to be a balanced approach, based upon the cost of extending Experian subscriptions for USS members, the risk of malicious use of the data exfiltrated from Capita’s server estate and our ongoing dark web monitoring. We have not taken this decision lightly but we are mindful that the extensive cost of extending subscriptions would be borne by the pension fund and so we have to ensure our response is proportionate.
Other factors we have considered include:
- The USS member data in question.
- The steps that Capita says it has taken to recover and secure the data contained within the part of its server estate impacted by this incident.
- The dark web searches undertaken by both USS and Capita, which have found no evidence of USS member data being circulated. USS will continue to carry out these searches throughout 2024.
- Our review of USS systems and controls, which we are confident remain robust.
While we understand the distress that any data breach can cause, the USS data that Capita has advised was potentially compromised in last year’s breach does not include information that could be used directly for phishing and/or fraud – data such as email addresses, postal addresses, banking details, payslips or passwords.
The data in question includes the title, initial(s), name, date of birth, National Insurance number and member number of around 470,000 USS members dating back to February 2021. (Note that anyone who joined USS after this date would not have been affected.) Login information for the My USS member portal has not been compromised.
We are confident that members’ pensions remain secure, and we strengthened our ID and verification processes at the outset of this incident. We have taken the view that the proportionate response, as things stand, is to continue monitoring the Dark Web rather than use scheme funds, which pay members’ pensions, to extend members’ access to Experian’s services, but we will continue to keep this position under review.