WH Smith hit by cyber attack
High Street retailer WH Smith has been hit by a cyber-attack, with hackers accessing some of its employee’s data.
Data that may have been breached includes names, addresses, National Insurance numbers and dates of birth of the firm’s current and former UK staff.
However, its website, customer accounts and customer databases are not affected, WH Smith said.
The book and stationary chain said it had launched an investigation and had told the relevant authorities of the incident.
“WH Smith takes the issue of cyber security extremely seriously and investigations into the incident are ongoing,” it said.
“We are notifying all affected colleagues and have put measures in place to support them.”
It added: “There has been no impact on the trading activities of the group. Our website, customer accounts and underlying customer databases are on separate systems that are unaffected by this incident.”
WH Smith did not say how many of its current and former employees had been affected by the breach, which took place earlier this week. The company employs about 10,000 people in the UK across its High Street stores and outlets at railway stations and airports.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), a watchdog which investigates data breaches, said it was aware of the incident and was investigating.
