WH Smith

History

2023: Data theft of all employees

In early March 2023, retail chain WH Smith announced that it was the victim of a cyber attack that resulted in hackers gaining access to its confidential data. It is reported about the leakage of data of all employees of the retailer.

Book and stationery chain WH Smith has confirmed a possible leak in employee pay data. The stolen data included the names, addresses, dates of birth and national insurance numbers of employees, but the company does not believe that access to bank details was obtained by hackers. As of March 6, 2023, WH Smith has more than 1.4 thousand stores around the world.

Hackers gained access to names, addresses, dates of birth and social security numbers of employees

According to the Independent, WH Smith reacted quickly as soon as the incident became known. The company then carried out a thorough investigation with specialist support services to ensure all necessary protocols were followed and informed the relevant UK authorities.

We notify all colleagues affected and take action to support them. There was no impact on the group's trading activities. Our website, customer accounts and customer databases are on separate systems that are not affected by this incident - WH Smith said on its official website.

WH Smith reported that only its British workers were affected, but did not specify how many employees were affected. In Britain, as of March 2023, WH Smith employs about 12.5 thousand employees in stores on the streets, as well as in a growing tourism division operating at airports, hospitals and train stations. WH Smith said the hack did not affect its trading operations and stressed that its website, customer accounts and customer databases were in unaffected separate systems.^[1]

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