CUSTOMER CREDIT CARDS which were affected by a massive security breach at a loyalty scheme company may have been used fraudulently, prompting calls from government for more to be done to protect these card details.
Gardaí and the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner are investigating after the credit cards of more than 500,000 people are believed to have been compromised by the data breach at Loyaltybuild almost three weeks ago.
The problem affected customers who had used Supervalu’s Getaway scheme and AXA’s Leisure Break package, as well as others.
Loyaltybuild said it was the victim of a ‘sophisticated criminal attack’ which was first detected on Friday 25 October. However details of the security breach were only made public at the start of this week.
There is believed to be some evidence on possible fraud on a small number of cards involved in the breach.
AIB said its fraud team is continuing to monitor the situation very carefully and will contact any customer if fraud is detected on their account. A spokesperson for the bank urged customers to always check their transactions regularly and contact the bank if they identify any unusual activity.
Bank of Ireland has said there was no fraud on any cards belonging to its customers which were affected by the data breach.
Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes has advised anyone who may have been affected to check their credit card bills over the last month or so.
‘Extra resources’
Tourism Minister Michael Ring has called for companies to place extra resources on protecting customer’s credit card details.
Speaking at the Ryanair job announcement this morning, he said that he hopes the data leaks which affected some weekend break schemes won’t affect domestic tourism in Ireland, and that confidence is restored.
However, he said that he always worried that a breach would occur.
Taoiseach Enda Kenny echoed the Minister’s calls, adding that it is a “clearly an issue here which needs to be addressed”.
Additional reporting by Nicky Ryan
To embed this post, copy the code below on your site
have your say