14 DAY TRIAL // Carphone Warehouse, a British mobile phone retailer, has announced that hackers managed to penetrate its systems and access the personal details of 2.4 million customers.
The company has 2,400 stores across Europe, but the data breach affected only one of the company's UK branches, which operates websites like OneStopPhoneShop.com, e2save.com, and Mobiles.co.uk.
Additionally, that particular branch also provides a number of services to iD Mobile, TalkTalk Mobile, Talk Mobile, and to certain customers of Carphone Warehouse.
Encrypted credit card data for 90,000 customers also exposed
Soon after the "sophisticated cyber-attack" was detected, the company took steps to secure the servers in question.
According to the company's press release, "name, address, date of birth and bank details of up to 2.4 million customers" and "encrypted credit card data of up to 90,000 customers" were accessed.
Details of Currys and PCWorld users along with the vast majority of Carphone Warehouse customer data were kept on separate systems and were not targeted in the attack.
Emails have been sent to affected Carphone Warehouse customers
Sebastian James, Group Chief Executive of Dixons Carphone, has said the company is "informing anyone that may have been affected" and is putting "in place additional security measures."
The Register, a UK-based website that writes on infosec news, has obtained one of the emails/letters sent to Carphone Warehouse customers.
Since the incident was detected on August 5, the company seems to have moved pretty quickly in letting its customers know about the problem, while also providing them with a set of steps to minimize damages from the data breach.
According to the email/letter, customers are encouraged to ask their banks to monitor their financial transactions, check credit ratings and see if someone has not taken a loan in their name, and avoid giving any personal details to people calling and asking for this kind of information.