This article is from page 51 of the 2013-12-31 edition of The Clare People. OCR mistakes are to be expected so download the original SWF or the rendered page 51 JPG
NEWS of a major data security breach in Ennis travelled around the world in November after it was revealed that a cyber attack had taken place on the Station Road-based company LoyaltyBuild.
The Data Protection Commissioner said the credit card details of over 500,000 people across Europe may have been compromised by the data breach at Loyaltybuild.
The company was sold in 2008 by businessmen Dominic Considine, Domhnal Slattery and Sean Lyne for € 25 million to American company, Affinion.
Suspicion about a possible breach emerged on Friday, October 25, and a team of “expert forensic investigators” was appointed to determine what had happened.
On Wednesday, October 30, it emerged that a breach may have occurred and it contacted the Data Protection Commissioner (DPC) on November 1.
An inspection team from the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner has also confirmed that the names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of around 1.12 million clients were also taken.
Billy Hawkes said his office has now made contact with colleagues across Europe to inform them of the security breach.
Loyaltybuild runs special offers and incentive schemes for major retailers, utilities and service providers in Ireland, the UK, Scandinavia and Switzerland.
The ODPC said an inspection team has confirmed that the full card details of over 376,000 customers were taken.
Of this figure, over 70,000 were SuperValu customers and over 8,000 were AXA Leisure Break customers.
The details of another 150,000 clients were also potentially compromised. It said initial indications are that the breaches were the result of an “external criminal act”.
Managing director Peter Steenstrup has said he is deeply sorry for what is described as a major security breach at the company.
He urged customers to check their bank account statements and report any suspicious activity.
Mr Steenstrup said Loyaltybuild takes data security very seriously and the company is working to ensure that this will never happen again.
The Data Protection Commissioner said the criminals who breached security have all the information they need in order to use the payment cards.
LoyaltyBuild stated that the system breach was discovered last month, and that they have been working around the clock with their security experts to get to the bottom of matter.
“From the moment we first detected a suspected security breach on Friday, October 25, we immediately engaged the services of an expert forensics security team and have worked tirelessly to try to rectify this situation,” they noted.
“The DPC and the Gardaí will be kept informed of any further developments.”