WH Smith PLC (LSE:SMWH) has become the latest victim of cyber-attack in the retailer sector, with the FTSE 250-listed company saying its staff’s data had been accessed.
The hackers accessed both present and former employee’s data, the company said.
It said customer accounts, databases and the firm’s website were not affected.
"WH Smith takes the issue of cyber security extremely seriously and investigations into the incident are ongoing," said the high streets, airports and stations retailer, adding that it had notified all staff affected by the incident.
WH Smith shares are down 0.9% today after opening trading at 1592p.
This incident arrives amid reports that numbers of ransomware attacks in the past year were the second highest on record, according to research by cybersecurity firm SonicWall.
Retailers were one of the worst hit sectors, with the industry suffering 50% more cyberattacks in 2022 - whilst the finance industry reported an 86% rise.
The volume of malware, software created to hack into a computer or server, increased by 2% year on year partially due to sharp rises in crypto based attacks, SonicWall added.