People's Postcode Lottery Company CyberSecurity Posture
postcodelottery.info
People's Postcode Lottery has been helping support charities and good causes throughout Britain and beyond since 2005. Our mission is to help raise funds for charities and good causes and increase awareness of their work. Players have raised more than £1.4 billion for thousands of charities and local good causes. As an external lottery manager, we operate society lotteries on behalf of 20 Postcode Trusts. We're licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission. People's Postcode Lottery is owned by Novamedia, the creators of the Postcode Lottery brand. Its Postcode Lottery model now operates in five countries - the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain, Germany and Norway. Novamedia/Postcode Lottery Group is one of the largest private charity donors in the world.
Company Details
peoples-postcode-lottery
201-500 employees
6,986
561
postcodelottery.info
0
PEO_1944149
In-progress
PPL Risk Score (AI oriented)Between 750 and 799
PPL Global Score (TPRM)XXXX
Description: A technical error in People's Postcode Lottery (PPL) exposed customer data to unauthorized users when logging into the platform on **October 27**. The breach displayed other players' **names, addresses, email addresses, and dates of birth** upon refreshing the homepage. The issue was resolved within **17 minutes**, with full service restoration by **October 29**. While no external attack was detected, the glitch affected **0.1% of its 4.9 million subscribers** (~4,900 users). PPL notified impacted customers, offered **free Experian credit monitoring for a year**, and reported the incident to the **UK Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO)**. The company emphasized its commitment to preventing future occurrences and reiterated its responsibility to players. PPL operates a subscription-based lottery where **30% of ticket revenue** funds charities, having raised over **£1.5 billion** since 2005.
No incidents recorded for People's Postcode Lottery in 2025.
No incidents recorded for People's Postcode Lottery in 2025.
No incidents recorded for People's Postcode Lottery in 2025.
PPL cyber incidents detection timeline including parent company and subsidiaries
People's Postcode Lottery has been helping support charities and good causes throughout Britain and beyond since 2005. Our mission is to help raise funds for charities and good causes and increase awareness of their work. Players have raised more than £1.4 billion for thousands of charities and local good causes. As an external lottery manager, we operate society lotteries on behalf of 20 Postcode Trusts. We're licensed and regulated by the Gambling Commission. People's Postcode Lottery is owned by Novamedia, the creators of the Postcode Lottery brand. Its Postcode Lottery model now operates in five countries - the Netherlands, Sweden, Britain, Germany and Norway. Novamedia/Postcode Lottery Group is one of the largest private charity donors in the world.
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Explore insights on cybersecurity incidents, risk posture, and Rankiteo's assessments.
The official website of People's Postcode Lottery is http://www.postcodelottery.info.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery’s AI-generated cybersecurity score is 760, reflecting their Fair security posture.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery currently holds 0 security badges, indicating that no recognized compliance certifications are currently verified for the organization.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery is not certified under SOC 2 Type 1.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery does not hold a SOC 2 Type 2 certification.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery is not listed as GDPR compliant.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery does not currently maintain PCI DSS compliance.
According to Rankiteo, People's Postcode Lottery is not compliant with HIPAA regulations.
According to Rankiteo,People's Postcode Lottery is not certified under ISO 27001, indicating the absence of a formally recognized information security management framework.
People's Postcode Lottery operates primarily in the Fundraising industry.
People's Postcode Lottery employs approximately 201-500 employees people worldwide.
People's Postcode Lottery presently has no subsidiaries across any sectors.
People's Postcode Lottery’s official LinkedIn profile has approximately 6,986 followers.
No, People's Postcode Lottery does not have a profile on Crunchbase.
Yes, People's Postcode Lottery maintains an official LinkedIn profile, which is actively utilized for branding and talent engagement, which can be accessed here: https://www.linkedin.com/company/peoples-postcode-lottery.
As of December 21, 2025, Rankiteo reports that People's Postcode Lottery has experienced 1 cybersecurity incidents.
People's Postcode Lottery has an estimated 1,146 peer or competitor companies worldwide.
Incident Types: The types of cybersecurity incidents that have occurred include Breach.
Detection and Response: The company detects and responds to cybersecurity incidents through an third party assistance with experian (credit monitoring), and containment measures with service taken offline within 17 minutes of discovery, and remediation measures with bug fix deployed, remediation measures with system restoration, and recovery measures with full service restoration by 2023-10-29 09:00 utc, and communication strategy with email notifications to affected customers, communication strategy with public statement, communication strategy with apology issued, communication strategy with offer of 1 year free experian credit monitoring..
Title: People's Postcode Lottery Customer Data Exposure Due to Technical Error
Description: A technical error in People's Postcode Lottery (PPL) caused customer data to be exposed to other users upon logging in. The exposed data included names, addresses, email addresses, and dates of birth. The issue was resolved within 17 minutes of discovery, with services fully restored by October 29, 2023. Approximately 0.1% of PPL's 4.9 million subscribers were affected. The company reported the incident to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) and offered affected customers a year of free Experian credit monitoring.
Date Detected: 2023-10-27
Date Publicly Disclosed: 2023-10-27
Date Resolved: 2023-10-29T09:00:00Z
Type: Data Exposure (Unintentional Disclosure)
Vulnerability Exploited: Technical error in user data retrieval/logic (likely session or caching misconfiguration)
Common Attack Types: The most common types of attacks the company has faced is Breach.
Data Compromised: Names, Addresses, Email addresses, Dates of birth
Systems Affected: Customer portal/web application
Downtime: 17 minutes (initial outage) + ~48 hours (full service restoration)
Operational Impact: Temporary suspension of online services; customer notifications and credit monitoring enrollment
Customer Complaints: Likely (forum posts reported the issue)
Brand Reputation Impact: Moderate (public apology issued; proactive communication with affected users)
Legal Liabilities: Potential (reported to ICO; no fines mentioned yet)
Identity Theft Risk: Moderate (PII exposed; credit monitoring offered)
Commonly Compromised Data Types: The types of data most commonly compromised in incidents are Personally Identifiable Information (Pii) and .
Entity Name: People's Postcode Lottery (PPL)
Entity Type: Private Company (Lottery Operator)
Industry: Gambling/Lottery
Location: United Kingdom
Size: 4.9 million subscribers (2022)
Customers Affected: ~0.1% of 4.9 million (~4,900 customers)
Incident Response Plan Activated: True
Third Party Assistance: Experian (Credit Monitoring).
Containment Measures: Service taken offline within 17 minutes of discovery
Remediation Measures: Bug fix deployedSystem restoration
Recovery Measures: Full service restoration by 2023-10-29 09:00 UTC
Communication Strategy: Email notifications to affected customersPublic statementApology issuedOffer of 1 year free Experian credit monitoring
Third-Party Assistance: The company involves third-party assistance in incident response through Experian (credit monitoring), .
Type of Data Compromised: Personally identifiable information (pii)
Number of Records Exposed: ~4,900
Sensitivity of Data: High (PII including names, addresses, emails, DOBs)
Prevention of Data Exfiltration: The company takes the following measures to prevent data exfiltration: Bug fix deployed, System restoration, .
Handling of PII Incidents: The company handles incidents involving personally identifiable information (PII) through by service taken offline within 17 minutes of discovery and .
Data Recovery from Ransomware: The company recovers data encrypted by ransomware through Full service restoration by 2023-10-29 09:00 UTC, .
Regulations Violated: Potential GDPR (UK GDPR) violation,
Regulatory Notifications: Reported to Information Commissioner's Office (ICO)
Lessons Learned: Importance of rigorous testing for session/caching mechanisms in customer-facing applications; need for rapid incident response to minimize exposure duration.
Recommendations: Conduct a thorough security audit of the customer portal, particularly session management and data retrieval logic., Implement multi-layered access controls to prevent unauthorized data exposure., Enhance logging and monitoring to detect anomalous data access patterns in real-time., Regularly review and test incident response plans to ensure swift containment.Conduct a thorough security audit of the customer portal, particularly session management and data retrieval logic., Implement multi-layered access controls to prevent unauthorized data exposure., Enhance logging and monitoring to detect anomalous data access patterns in real-time., Regularly review and test incident response plans to ensure swift containment.Conduct a thorough security audit of the customer portal, particularly session management and data retrieval logic., Implement multi-layered access controls to prevent unauthorized data exposure., Enhance logging and monitoring to detect anomalous data access patterns in real-time., Regularly review and test incident response plans to ensure swift containment.Conduct a thorough security audit of the customer portal, particularly session management and data retrieval logic., Implement multi-layered access controls to prevent unauthorized data exposure., Enhance logging and monitoring to detect anomalous data access patterns in real-time., Regularly review and test incident response plans to ensure swift containment.
Key Lessons Learned: The key lessons learned from past incidents are Importance of rigorous testing for session/caching mechanisms in customer-facing applications; need for rapid incident response to minimize exposure duration.
Source: The Register
Additional Resources: Stakeholders can find additional resources on cybersecurity best practices at and Source: The Register.
Investigation Status: Completed (root cause identified as technical error; no external attack)
Communication of Investigation Status: The company communicates the status of incident investigations to stakeholders through Email Notifications To Affected Customers, Public Statement, Apology Issued and Offer Of 1 Year Free Experian Credit Monitoring.
Stakeholder Advisories: Public statement and email notifications to affected customers.
Customer Advisories: Emails sent to affected users with details of the incident and offer of free credit monitoring.
Advisories Provided: The company provides the following advisories to stakeholders and customers following an incident: were Public statement and email notifications to affected customers. and Emails sent to affected users with details of the incident and offer of free credit monitoring..
Root Causes: Technical error in the system logic that retrieved and displayed customer data, likely tied to session or caching mechanisms.
Corrective Actions: Bug Fix Deployed To Resolve The Data Exposure Issue., Enhanced Monitoring And Testing Protocols Implemented (Implied By Statement On Preventing Future Incidents).,
Post-Incident Analysis Process: The company's process for conducting post-incident analysis is described as Experian (Credit Monitoring), .
Corrective Actions Taken: The company has taken the following corrective actions based on post-incident analysis: Bug Fix Deployed To Resolve The Data Exposure Issue., Enhanced Monitoring And Testing Protocols Implemented (Implied By Statement On Preventing Future Incidents)., .
Most Recent Incident Detected: The most recent incident detected was on 2023-10-27.
Most Recent Incident Publicly Disclosed: The most recent incident publicly disclosed was on 2023-10-27.
Most Recent Incident Resolved: The most recent incident resolved was on 2023-10-29T09:00:00Z.
Most Significant Data Compromised: The most significant data compromised in an incident were names, addresses, email addresses, dates of birth and .
Most Significant System Affected: The most significant system affected in an incident was Customer portal/web application.
Third-Party Assistance in Most Recent Incident: The third-party assistance involved in the most recent incident was experian (credit monitoring), .
Containment Measures in Most Recent Incident: The containment measures taken in the most recent incident was Service taken offline within 17 minutes of discovery.
Most Sensitive Data Compromised: The most sensitive data compromised in a breach were names, dates of birth, email addresses and addresses.
Number of Records Exposed in Most Significant Breach: The number of records exposed in the most significant breach was 4.9K.
Most Significant Lesson Learned: The most significant lesson learned from past incidents was Importance of rigorous testing for session/caching mechanisms in customer-facing applications; need for rapid incident response to minimize exposure duration.
Most Significant Recommendation Implemented: The most significant recommendation implemented to improve cybersecurity was Conduct a thorough security audit of the customer portal, particularly session management and data retrieval logic., Enhance logging and monitoring to detect anomalous data access patterns in real-time., Implement multi-layered access controls to prevent unauthorized data exposure. and Regularly review and test incident response plans to ensure swift containment..
Most Recent Source: The most recent source of information about an incident is The Register.
Current Status of Most Recent Investigation: The current status of the most recent investigation is Completed (root cause identified as technical error; no external attack).
Most Recent Stakeholder Advisory: The most recent stakeholder advisory issued was Public statement and email notifications to affected customers., .
Most Recent Customer Advisory: The most recent customer advisory issued was an Emails sent to affected users with details of the incident and offer of free credit monitoring.
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