Debenhams cyber attack sees personalised gift site suspended

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
May 5, 2017

UK department stores giant Debenhams appears to have been the victim of a cyber attack that has affected the personal data of 26,000 of its customers and has suspended its personalised gifts, wines, hampers and florist websites as a result.

The company has only said that the breach was caused by a malware attack on the Debenhams Flowers site and has not said whether the other sites have been affected.

It is likely that the other three sites have been suspended as they are operated by the same third-party supplier as the florist portal, Ecomnova.

Debenhams told Sky News that the attackers got away with customer payment details, names and addresses but that the main debenhams.com site was not compromised. The retailer also said that all affected customer have been contacted by the firm.

Debenhams is now working with Ecomnova to ask banks to block the payment cards of affected customers and issue them with new cards.

Cyber attacks have become increasingly common in recent years with Target Corp, Neiman Marcus and Home Depot in the US being among the biggest names to be hit.

Stores have tightened up their cyber security as a result with the authorities increasingly ready punish companies not seen to have strong enough security systems in place. In Britain communications firm TalkTalk was fined £400,000 after the bank details of almost 16,000 customers were stolen.