More Impacted by Dixons Data Breach than First Indicated

It has been revealed that the Dixons Carphone data breach impacted the personal data of 10 million people, a much higher number of people than first estimated.

A statement made public by Dixons revealed: “Our investigation, which is now nearing completion, has identified that approximately 10 million records containing personal data may have been accessed in 2017. While there is no evidence that some of this data may have left our systems, these records do not contain payment card or bank account details and there is no evidence that any fraud has resulted.”

It went on to say: “We are continuing to keep the relevant authorities updated. As a precaution, we are choosing to communicate to all of our customers to apologise and advise them of protective steps to minimise the risk of fraud. As we indicated previously, we have taken action to close off this access and have no evidence it is continuing.”

In June Dixons Carphone made it public that 5.9 million customer bank card details and 1.2 million personal data records had been illegally obtained and the group contacted all its customers in the UK and Ireland to advise them of this.

5.8 million of the payment cards targeted were safeguarded by chip and pin. However, around 105,000 non-EU cards which did not have chip and pin protection were affected. Dixons Carphone added that the relevant card companies had been advised regarding the incident. They also said there was no proof of fraud on the cards due to the breach.

Dixons Carphone Chief executive Alex Baldock stated: “Since our data security review uncovered last year’s breach, we’ve been working around the clock to put it right. That’s included closing off the unauthorised access, adding new security measures and launching an immediate investigation, which has allowed us to build a fuller understanding of the incident that we’re updating on today. As a precaution, we’re now also contacting all our customers to apologise and advise on the steps they can take to protect themselves. Again, we’re disappointed in having fallen short here and very sorry for any distress we’ve caused our customers. I want to assure them that we remain fully committed to making their personal data safe with us.”