Carphone Warehouse has revealed this weekend that earlier in the week the company’s IT systems got hacked and up to 2.4-million of its customers’ personal information including names, addresses and bank details may have been compromised.
An investigation by the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Met Cyber Crime department is under way to find out the severity of the breach of security during the cyber-attack which was spotted by Carphone Warehouse (now part of Dixons Carphone) on Wednesday. Customers of the main brand and subsidiaries such as E2Save were informed via a precautionary email on Saturday with details on how to proceed.
The email reads in part: “We take the security of your data extremely seriously, and we have put in place additional security measures to prevent further attacks. Nevertheless, we felt it was important to let you know as soon as possible.” – However, it did take three days for this news to reach customers, causing outrage on Twitter and social networking sites.
The reports so far suggest that up to 90,000 of the affected customers could have had valuable credit card information accessed and customers are advised to check their online banking to ensure no fraudulent activity has already taken place, and also to contact the bank so they can flag any unusual transactions in the near future.
Customers are also being advised to be wary concerning any phone calls asking for banking details or passwords and to also contact Experian or Equifax to make sure credit and loans have not been taken out in the customer’s name using information obtained in the hack.
Carphone Warehouse also provides the number for Action Fraud which is 0300 123 2040.
Sources: BBC News, Carphone Warehouse