Dixons Carphone customers involved in ‘huge’ data breach

Hackers attempted to access around 5.9
million payment cards

News Feed

The company says it discovered the data breach while reviewing
its “systems” and has since “taken action” to block the backdoor
used by the intruders.  

The hackers reportedly attempted to access the details of
around 5.9 million payment cards used in Currys PC World and Dixons
Travel stores, the company says. 

Some 5.8 million cards have chip and pin protection, the
company adds, and that it has found “no evidence” of fraudulent
use. 

However, 105,000 payment cards not protected by chip and pin
were accessed, The Guardian reports, although Dixons Carphone
has contacted the banks relating to the leaked accounts. 

Director of consumer watchdog Which?, Alex Neill, told the
newspaper that the leak will “cause worry to millions of customers
and raises serious questions about how Dixons Carphone has been
looking after customers’ data.”

“It is critical the company moves quickly to ensure those
affected get clear information about what has happened and what
steps they should take to protect themselves”, he said.

But the leak goes beyond payment cards, says Sky News, as the personal details of an
estimate 1.2 million customers were also hacked.

Customer names, addresses and email accounts were accessed
through the data leak, the broadcasted reports, but Dixons Carphone
claims that it has no evidence that the information left its
internal systems. 

“This is a very serious incident”, says the BBC’s tech correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones, who argues
that the leak may be connected to a data leak at Carphone Warehouse
2015, where the personal details of 2.1 million customers were
accessed by hackers. 

But Dixons Carphone claims it only discovered the recent
data leak last week and that it is not linked to the Carphone
Warehouse incident, the BBC reports.