Data security - A worrying breach

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.

In Ireland, information belonging to 60,000 SuperValu customers, 8,000 Axa Insurance clients and a number of Stena Line customers has been hacked.

SuperValu said the incident involving its Getaway Breaks scheme is more extensive than first thought, with double the number of customers affected.

That is scary enough. What is scarier is SuperValu appears to insist on its website “there is no information to suggest that any data has been obtained”. That would be reassuring if it wasn’t for the fact Data Protection Commissioner Billy Hawkes told RTÉ Radio the criminals who breached security have all the information they need in order to use the credit cards.