Security News > 2023 > March > British retail chain WH Smith says data stolen in cyberattack
British retailer WH Smith has suffered a data breach that exposed information belonging to current and former employees.
"WH Smith PLC has been the target of a cyber security incident which has resulted in illegal access to some company data, including current and former employee data," reads the company's cybersecurity notice filed with London's Stock Exchange.
"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" - WH Smith.
Although there are no details about the date of the attack, it can be concluded that the intrusion occurred after January 18, the date of the last trading update from the company, which did not mention any cyberattack.
A notable example is the attack on Yum! Brands January 19 that forced the firm to close down 300 KFC, Pizza Hut, Taco Bell, and The Habit Burger Grill restaurants in the UK. On January 30, British sports apparel chain JD Sports disclosed that it suffered a data breach after hackers compromised its servers and stole the online order information of ten million customers.
On February 7, the LockBit ransomware gang took responsibility for the cyberattack on Royal Mail, UK's leading mail delivery services provider, forcing the company and its customers to sustain lengthy outages.