Retailer WH Smith discloses data breach after a cyberattack

Retailer WH Smith disclosed a data breach following a cyber attack, threat actors had access to access company data.

Retailer WH Smith revealed that threat actors have breached its infrastructure and had access to the data of about 12,500 current and former employees.

The company immediately launched an investigation into the incident with the help of specialist support services, it also notified the relevant authorities.

The company is notifying all affected employees and announced it has put measures in place to support them.

“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. 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.” reads a notice filed with the London Stock Exchange’s Regulatory News Service. “There has been no impact on the trading activities of the Group.”

The company pointed out that its customer data were not impacted.

WH Smith has more than 1,700 stores that sell books, stationery, magazines, newspapers, entertainment products and confectionery.

The notice doesn’t provide details about the attack, however, the impact reported in the notice is consistent with a ransomware attack.

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Pierluigi Paganini

(SecurityAffairs – hacking, Moshen Dragon)

Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini is member of the ENISA (European Union Agency for Network and Information Security) Threat Landscape Stakeholder Group and Cyber G7 Group, he is also a Security Evangelist, Security Analyst and Freelance Writer. Editor-in-Chief at "Cyber Defense Magazine", Pierluigi is a cyber security expert with over 20 years experience in the field, he is Certified Ethical Hacker at EC Council in London. The passion for writing and a strong belief that security is founded on sharing and awareness led Pierluigi to find the security blog "Security Affairs" recently named a Top National Security Resource for US. Pierluigi is a member of the "The Hacker News" team and he is a writer for some major publications in the field such as Cyber War Zone, ICTTF, Infosec Island, Infosec Institute, The Hacker News Magazine and for many other Security magazines. Author of the Books "The Deep Dark Web" and “Digital Virtual Currency and Bitcoin”.