Carphone Warehouse cyber attack puts millions of account holders at risk

The Carphone Warehouse's Support Centre, in Acton, West London. Wikimedia Commons/ Cjb~commonswiki

Cyber attackers have done it once again and just last week, they have accessed personal data from 2.4 million Carphone Warehouse account holders.

Carphone Warehouse had admitted of the hacking incident and even said that encrypted data from 90,000 customers' credit cards may have been hacked as well.

The breach in the U.K. division happened on Wednesday, reports stated. This U.K. division handles the websites e2save.com, Mobiles.co.uk, and OneStopPhoneShop.com, The Telegraph reported.

Carphone Warehouse's parent company, Dixons Carphone, assure customers that data from Currys, Dixons Travel, and PCWorld were not accessed.

The company has already taken steps to ensure security to all of its customers. It already sent out a letter via email informing those who are at big risk and giving them details on the next steps that they can take.

Those who have been affected by the hack were advised to notify their banks immediately and be aware of any malicious activity on their accounts.

Customers were also advised to make a new password for their Carphone Warehouse account and other accounts related to it. More importantly, victims were advised not to fall for cold callers who could be pretending to be someone from the company.

Fraud victims can also check if their credit card scores have been affected by the hack by visiting websites such as Experian and Equifax.

Anyone who became a victim of fraud was advised to contact United Kingdom's Action Fraud, the country's reporting center for national fraud and cyber crime.

United Kingdom's Information Commissioner's Office is now investigating the breach, according to The Guardian.

A spokesman for the office said that any instance of lost personal data will put a person at risk of identity theft.

The spokesman advised that anyone should take precautionary measures to fight identity theft, which include being alert on the items found in credit card statements and checking the credit card ratings.

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