The Agency, a London talent and literary management firm established in 1995 whose client list has included figures from film, television and theatre, disclosed a cyber incident in February 2025 after the Rhysida ransomware group added it to its extortion site.
Rhysida published a montage of sample material it said had been taken from the agency, including scans of client passports, spreadsheets and internal documents. The gang put the data up for auction at 7 bitcoin and threatened to publish it in full if no buyer came forward. The Register valued the demand at about $678,000 and Comparitech at roughly $682,000, a difference that reflects the bitcoin price on the day each figure was calculated.
The Agency self-referred to the UK Information Commissioner's Office. A spokesperson for the regulator confirmed to The Register that a report had been received and that enquiries were being made. The agency itself declined to comment and did not say whether it would pay, how the attackers gained access, or how much data had actually been removed.
The incident fell in the same period as a separate ransomware attack on UK book printer CPI, and The Bookseller covered both. Rhysida was the same operation responsible for the 2023 attack on the British Library. As of late February 2025 the agency had published no figures for how many clients or staff were affected and had issued no breach notification.