Posted BY: | NwoReport
High street retailer WH Smith said it has been the target of a cyber attack that has seen hackers access company data including current and former employee information.
The books and stationery chain confirmed the hack has seen a possible breach of staff payroll data such as names, addresses, dates of birth, and national insurance numbers. However, it does not believe banking details have been accessed.
WH Smith said only its UK workers have been impacted but did not say how many employees have been affected.
The group employs around 10,000 staff in the UK across its high street stores and a growing travel arm based at airports, hospitals, and train stations.
It said the hack has not impacted its trading activities and stressed its website, customer accounts, and customer databases are on separate unaffected systems.
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WH Smith said: ‘Upon becoming aware of the incident, we immediately launched an investigation, engaged specialist support services, and implemented our incident response plans, which included notifying the relevant authorities.’
It added: ‘WH Smith takes the issue of cyber security extremely seriously and investigations into the incident are ongoing.
‘We are notifying all affected colleagues and have put measures in place to support them.’
WH Smith said it has notified the Information Commissioner’s Office and relevant authorities about the hack.
It comes amid a wave of cyber attacks in recent months, with Royal Mail’s international postal service suffering lengthy disruption after hackers targeted the group.
Retailer JD Sports also warned in January that around 10 million people might have had their addresses, phone numbers and email addresses were stolen – among other things – in a hack.
