Six more firms have been added to the list of businesses whose customers’ credit card and personal details were stolen in a hacking attack on web-based company, Loyaltybuild, bringing the total revealed so far to 10.

The hacking of the customer database of the Clare-based business Loyaltybuild poses serious questions that seem to be growing hourly. The hacking occurred during October, but there has been a distinct delay in relaying the gravity of the situation to the public.

A number of other high-profile companies are now thought to have been caught up in the hacking incident at Clare firm "Loyalty Build".

Taoiseach Enda Kenny has called on financial regulators and firms to put safeguards in place to protect people’s bank accounts.

The American owners of Clare-based Loyaltybuild Ltd last month agreed to pay a $30m (€22.3m) settlement for data protection breaches across the Atlantic.

Suspected hackers who stole credit card details of hundreds of thousands of people are likely based overseas, according to the garda commissioner.

Electricity customers have become the latest to fall prey to the data protection debacle at Loyaltybuild as gardaí yesterday announced a fraud squad probe into breaches at the company.

An initial examination by the Irish Payment Services Organisation is showing no fraudulent activity on the credit cards of Supervalu and AXA customers.

Four separate investigations are under way after it emerged the number of customers whose personal and credit card details have been stolen from a web-based company has grown to almost 80,000, with thousands more potentially affected.

SUPERVALU is having a difficult week, with news that the data breach of customer information was worse than previously feared — affecting 62,500 customers. A further 8,000 customers at insurance company Axa may also have been affected.

The frailty of internet transactions has been exposed by the revelation that the credit card details of up to 500,000 people throughout Europe have been compromised by a data breach at Loyaltybuild, the US firm based in Ennis, Co Clare, that operates leisure break schemes for SuperValu and Axa.

The Data Protection Commissioner said the company at the centre of the Supervalu and Axa data breach should not have been holding on to credit card details.

The company at the heart of the data breach involving Supervalu and Axa Insurance customers says it has been the victim of a "sophisticated criminal attack".

The extent of a security breach at the online hotel booking operator that manages SuperValu’s getaway breaks is greater than first believed, placing the credit and debit card details of up to 62,500 customers at risk.

More than 40,000 customers have been warned to check their credit cards and bank accounts for unauthorised transactions as an online hotel booking operator investigates a security breach.

Loyaltybuild, an Irish-owned Loyalty Marketing Company headquartered in Ennis, employing 70 people, has started a partnership with Nordea Bank in Finland.

BT today announced a strong performance across Ireland for the year to the end of March 2007 with turnover growing 7% to €1.09bn compared with €1.02bn for the same period last year.