In a joint statement, the Bar Council’s Chief Executive Officer Malcolm Cree and the Bar Standards Board’s Director General Mark Neale said:
"The General Council of the Bar (GCB) has suffered a malicious cyber attack. Action was taken swiftly and required taking our IT systems offline in order to stop the attack and prevent any data loss. Our priority remains the protection of our IT systems and data from further attack. We do not believe any data has been lost. We are doing all that we can to fix the problem as soon as possible. Our emails and MyBar have been temporarily unavailable, and Authorisation to Practise and Court ID cards have both been extended. We are working at pace with our cyber security partners to cleanse and restore all systems and services and extend security arrangements. The attack has been reported to the ICO, National Cyber Security Centre and the Police. We apologise to anyone who has had difficulties in contacting our organisations during this time."
Further information (updated 13 June 2022) -
Authorisation to Practise -
The deadline has now been extended for a third month to 31 July 2022.
https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/resource/authorisation-to-practise-deadline-extended.html
Professional users' courts and tribunals access scheme -
You can now log on to MyBar to renew your Professional Users' Court and Tribunals Access Scheme card.
https://www.barcouncil.org.uk/bar-council-services/for-barristers/professional-users-court-access-scheme.html
MyBar -
Access to MyBar and the Direct Access Portal have been restored. You can now access both sites using your existing login details.
Contact information -
The Bar Council and Bar Standards Board remain available to contact via the telephone switchboard on 020 7611 1444