Wake-up call when cybercrime gets closer to home

If there were still people who believed that cybercrime was a concern solely of big business and multinational corporations, the events of last week represented a rude awakening. 

With many thousands of customers of Supervalu, Centra and Daybreak shops having been warned to check their upcoming credit and debit card statements as a precautionary measure after an attempted cyber attack on the stores, it offered a salutary lesson that this global spectre has now arrived at the heart of middle Ireland.

The ubiquitous man in the street and his granny shopping for her cat food were reminded in no uncertain terms that this ever- growing global criminality has now stretched right down into the handbag doing the weekly shop. While parent company Musgrave said there was “no evidence any data has been stolen”, it nevertheless advised shoppers “to review activity on their statements as a precautionary measure”.