When it comes to payroll and HR, people trust us with some of their most sensitive data, and it is essential that we take that responsibility seriously.
Protecting data is getting tougher. Cyber threats are no longer just spam emails or basic viruses, they’re smarter, more targeted, and often backed by organised crime groups looking for high-value information.
That’s why we’re proud to announce that we have renewed our Cyber Essentials Plus certification, a government-backed, independently assessed security standard. This is a huge part of making sure our systems are secure and resilient. But for us, it’s not just about ticking a box. At Cintra, we believe protecting our clients means always aiming higher than achieving basic compliance.
Cyber Essentials Plus is the UK’s top cybersecurity certification, and it’s not just paperwork. It involves real-world testing of how well we protect basics: firewalls, user access, software updates, and malware defences.
For Cintra, this is a reflection of our values to proactively protect confidential payroll and HR data everyday.
Cyber threats have changed. Attacks are more targeted, more sophisticated, and often aimed at organisations like ours.
Scattered Spider
A group known for impersonating staff through social engineering and SIM-swapping. They’re skilled at bypassing multi-factor authentication, and they often go straight for HR systems, where trust can be a vulnerability.
Hazy Hawk
Experts in staying hidden. They use zero-day exploits to get in quietly, then sit undetected for weeks or even months, usually looking for access to financial and payroll data.
The reality of today’s climate is that you don’t need to prepare for if someone tries to breach your systems, you need to prepare for when it happens.
If you were a cybercriminal, where would you look? The answer is simple: HR and payroll systems. They hold some of the most sensitive personal and financial data in any organisation, and that makes them high-value targets.
HR Systems: a goldmine of personal information
HR platforms store everything from CVs and contracts to bank details, right-to-work documents, and addresses—all in one place.
Attackers know this. Groups like Scattered Spider are known to impersonate applicants or suppliers to trick HR teams into giving access.
Tactics include:
Payroll Systems: direct access to financial resources
If HR systems are the front door, payroll is the vault. These systems connect directly to employee bank accounts, pension records, tax details, and salary data—a jackpot for financially driven attackers.
Threat actors like Hazy Hawk have used stealth access and data exfiltration techniques to silently drain or reroute payroll data.
Common attack methods:
The financial damage from a cyberattack on HR or payroll infrastructure can be severe
(Sources: SMEWeb, Cyber Magazine, IBM)
These are not theoretical numbers. They reflect real financial loss, reputational harm, and business disruption.
At Cintra, we don’t just meet the industry standard we go far beyond it.
Our security programme is designed to be comprehensive, adaptive, and resilient, incorporating a layered defence model tailored to the unique risks of payroll and HR data handling.
The following are just some of the technologies and practices we’ve implemented as part of our broader security architecture:
Cyber Essentials Plus is just the foundation. Looking ahead, Cintra is focused on: