logo-loader

Millions of Dixons Carphone customer records hacked

Last updated: 08:12 13 Jun 2018 BST, First published: 07:57 13 Jun 2018 BST

hacker message
CEO Alex Baldock said his company has “fallen short here”

Millions of Dixons Carphone Plc (LON:DC.) customers have had their card and personal details hacked, the electronics retailer has revealed.

The FTSE 250 group has launched an investigation after hackers accessed the credit and debit card details of 5.9mln Currys PC World and Dixons Travel customers.

Most of these cards are secured by chip and pin technology, Dixons Carphone said, but 105,000 which do not have been compromised. The relevant card companies have been informed and there is no evidence of any fraud at the moment.

The personal details – such as names, addresses, email addresses etc – of a further 1.2mln customers have also been accessed. Again, there is no sign that this information has been used fraudulently at this stage, Dixons said.

'We've fallen short'

“We are extremely disappointed and sorry for any upset this may cause,” said chief executive Alex Baldock.

“The protection of our data has to be at the heart of our business, and we’ve fallen short here.

“We’ve taken action to close off this unauthorised access and though we have currently no evidence of fraud as a result of these incidents, we are taking this extremely seriously.”

He added: “We are determined to put this right and are taking steps to do so; we promptly launched an investigation, engaged leading cyber security experts, added extra security measures to our systems and will be communicating directly with those affected.”

Not the only company targeted

Dixons Carphone isn’t the only company to be targeted in recent years as cyber-attacks become more common.

Yahoo’s UK arm was fined on Tuesday by UK authorities over a data breach affecting more than 500mln users. That incident happened back in 2014 but wasn’t reported until two years after.

Talktalk Telecom Group PLC (LON:TALK) was hit with a £400,000 fine back in 2016 following the theft of personal data of almost 157,000 customers.

Equifax Inc (NYSE:EFX) shares plunged last September after the US credit score giant announced that around 150mln – mostly in the US – had their private information compromised, including social security numbers, birth dates and addresses.

Dixons shares fell 4.5% at the opening bell in London to 188.2p.

--Updates for share price and additional info--

Oriole Resources outlines 2023 achievements and future exploration plans

Oriole Resources PLC (AIM:ORR) CEO Tim Livesey and chief financial officer Bob Smeeton join Proactive's Stephen Gunnion with details of the company's 2023 financial and operational performance. Livesey highlighted successful exploration programs in Cameroon, at the Bibemi and Mbe projects,...

1 hour, 45 minutes ago