Sheffield Hospitals Charity has warned supporters that their personal details may have been accessed after a cyber attack on Beacon CRM, the secure database system it uses to manage donor information. Beacon detected the breach on Monday, and it is understood to have affected more than 1,000 charities and organisations that rely on the platform, prompting Sheffield Hospitals Charity to contact its supporters as a precaution.

The compromised data may include names, postal and email addresses, phone numbers, and records of donations, volunteering, event participation and Gift Aid, though payment card details were not stored and are unaffected. Beacon said an unauthorised person used compromised login details to access parts of its system and download database back-ups, and it is working with cyber security specialists while investigating further. The charity, which is independent of the NHS trust and holds no patient data, said there is no evidence so far that information has been misused, and it has reported the incident to the Information Commissioner's Office, the Charity Commission and the Gambling Commission.