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Vet group CVS says it has been hit by a cyber-attack which has caused "considerable" disruption, particularly to its UK business.

CVS did not say what data had been accessed, but said it had informed authorities "due to the risk of malicious access to personal information".

CVS, which runs about 500 veterinary practices globally with 450 in the UK, said it had taken immediate action and its IT services had now been "securely restored" across most of the group.

However, it added its business could still be affected as some systems were not working as efficiently as before.

The company, which operates in the UK, Australia, the Netherlands and the Republic of Ireland and employs more than 9,000 people, said it had taken its IT systems offline temporarily when the attack had been discovered.

While this had caused "considerable operational disruption over the past week", it had been effective in preventing further access to its systems.

CVS said that while its UK business had been disrupted, outside the UK it remained "operationally unaffected".

It added it had reported the attack to the relevant authorities, including the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO).

In a statement, the ICO said CVS had reported an incident and it was "assessing the information provided".

CVS said that, as a result of the attack, it was speeding up plans to move its practice management system and related IT infrastructure to the cloud.

This move, together with added security measures, was likely to have an impact on its operations "for a number of weeks", it said.