Dixons Carphone is at the centre of another controversy after admitting to a second data breach this year. In January Dixons Carphone was fined £400,000 by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) after their online security was compromised by a cyber-attack in 2015. The personal information of over three million customers and 1,000 employers was accessed during this attack.
The most recent attack to the online security of Dixons Carphone has led to the unauthorised access of around 5.9 million payment card details and 1.2 million customers personal information. The breach was discovered early June during a systems and data review. A spokesperson at Dixons Carphone has stated that the two cyber-attacks are not related, but this specific breach of security is being described as one of the UK’s largest data security breaches ever.
What Does This Mean For Dixons Carphone?
The GCHQ and the ICO is investigating the data breach, which has led to a nearly 6pc drop in their shares. Perhaps fortunately for Dixons Carphone, the online security breach occurred before GDPR was implemented during July 2017 and so they are still most likely held to the previous Data Protection Act rules. This means their maximum fine will only be £500,000 as opposed to up to £17.6mn (or 4pc turnover depending on which amount is more) under the new GDPR rules. ICO is reviewing this currently to determine which act this breach should be dealt under.
What About The Customers?
There is no evidence of fraud as pin numbers were not accessed, however, Dixons Carphone have contacted customers that have been affected by the breach, and who are no doubt worried about any potential fraud within their account. Dixons Carphone CEO Alex Baldock has said in their website notice that “We are extremely disappointed and sorry for any upset this may cause,” and “we are taking this extremely seriously.”
The cyber-criminals have not yet been discovered.
For more online security news, don’t forget to subscribe and check back on the Professional Security website for more updates.
