Carphone Warehouse, a British cellphone retailer, says that personal details of up to 2.4 million customers may have been compromised following a hack that involved "sophisticated" technology.
Encrypted credit card information may also have been "accessed" for up to 90,000 customers. According to Carphone, the hack was immediately stopped after its system detected the intruders.
"We take the security of customer data extremely seriously, and we are very sorry that people have been affected by this attack on our systems," said Sebastian James, chief executive of Dixons Carphone, in a statement. "We are, of course, informing anyone that may have been affected, and have put in place additional security measures."
Dixons Carphone is the parent company of Carphone Warehouse, and also operates websites OneStopPhoneShop.com, e2save.com and Mobiles.co.uk.
The company has sent out an email to anyone who may have been affected by the hack, alerting them of the possibility that their credit card may have been compromised and that they should notify their bank.
While hacks have been prominent in news headlines over the past few years, this particular hacking is one of the largest conducted on in the U.K. British companies are becoming more of a target for hackers, following attacks on big U.S. companies like Target.
"Thankfully, it seems that Carphone Warehouse has encrypted the most sensitive bank and credit card information, but this is a reminder that hackers are targeting personal information and a warning to firms that they should act to encrypt and protect more of our personal data," said Alan Woodward, advisor to Europol, the E.U.'s law enforcement agency.
It is speculated that this was a so-called "spear-fishing attack," in which hackers specifically targeted Carphone Warehouse. It is unknown exactly how hackers gained access to the system, however, Woodward suggests that it may have been the result of someone being tricked into giving over their username and password.
This is just the latest in a string of recent high-profile hacks. In addition to Target, eBay was also the target of a large hacking incident. Another case is the attack of Sony Pictures Entertainment, which reportedly originated in North Korea in retaliation for The Interview, a film that follows an assassination attempt on North Korean leader Kim Jong-un.
Cybersecurity and repairing the damage done by hacks ends up costing U.K. businesses £34 billion per year (around $53 billion), according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research.
