Wetherspoon cyber breach reveals 650,000 customer details
Popular pub chain JD Wetherspoon has been the victim of a massive cyber attack, the company revealed today.
The attack occured between 15 and 17 June, but the company remained unaware of the incident until it was contacted by a national newspaper this week.
Some 657,000 customers had their details on the hacked database, which included names, dates of birth, email addresses and mobile phone numbers.
The details of 15,000 members of staff who worked at the chain in 2010 were also stolen.
An anonymous email had been sent to chief executive John Hutson on November 6 alerting him to the attack, but Hutson did not read it as the email was directed to his spam folder.
"We apologise wholeheartedly to customers and staff who have been affected," Hutson said.
"Unfortunately, hacking is becoming more and more sophisticated and widespread.
"We are determined to respond to this by increasing our efforts and investment in security and will be doing everything possible to prevent a recurrence."
The hackers behind the attack are based in Russia, the Financial Times reports.
Wetherspoons operates around 900 pubs in the UK and employs over 30,000 staff.
Security protocols at a range of consumer businesses are appearing increasingly inadequate.
News of the Wetherspoon attack follows on from the breach at toy manufacturer V-Tech earlier this week, which saw the accounts of 4.8 million parents and the profiles of 6.3 million children worldwide being hacked.
In October, hackers stole the details of 157,000 TalkTalk customers.
Connor Campbell, senior market analyst at www.spreadex.com, said: "It does appear that those companies in the know - that is, tech and financial companies - are increasingly susceptible to cyber-attacks.
"One imagines JD Wetherspoon wouldn't have been high on people's lists as the next target, yet here we are with another major hack on our hands, another company caught out by a lack of sufficient protection."
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56-58 Church Walk, Burgess Hill, West Sussex, RH15 9AN
Registered in England No. 6646125. VAT No. 938 4452 95
