Caravan and Motorhome Club outage in UK traced to a cyberattack

The Caravan and Motorhome Club, a UK membership body with around one million members, saw its website, mobile app and booking systems go down on January 20, 2024. Early notices attributed the disruption to maintenance, leaving members unable to make or change holiday bookings and unable to get through to the club's contact center.

After several days of member complaints, much of it about poor communication rather than the outage itself, director general Nick Lomas confirmed that the disruption had been caused by a cyberattack and that outside specialists had been brought in to recover and restore systems. The LockBit 3.0 ransomware operation listed the club on its data leak site in late January 2024, setting a ransom deadline of February 9 and claiming about 9.47 GB of files taken from the club. The club did not confirm ransomware or address the group's claim. It said at that stage it had been advised there was no evidence member data had been compromised, while noting the investigation was continuing.

The club later revised that position. Once forensic work concluded, it said records tied to two insurance products had been accessed: caravan insurance and cover policies from 2018 to 2024, limited to names and policy numbers, and Red Pennant emergency assistance policies from 2021 to 2023, which also included addresses, policy numbers and dates, vehicle registrations, 2023 monthly premiums and the names of passengers on transport bookings.

The club said no payment card details, direct debit information, campsite booking data, club passwords, email addresses or phone numbers had been taken. It apologized to members and warned them to be wary of unsolicited messages asking for account or security details.