Dixons update after massive data breach

Retailer Dixons Carphone will reveal its latest trading update and prepare to face shareholders on Thursday after a huge data breach involving nearly 16 million customer records.

In a shocking admission last month, the Currys and PC World group revealed 5.9 million bank card details and 10 million personal data records were hacked in an attack over several months in the second half of 2017 — far more than first thought.

Originally, Dixons Carphone said 1.2 million personal data records, which include customers’ names, emails and addresses, had been affected.

Dixons, which is holding its annual meeting for shareholders in London, has so far given no indication of any financial impact of the attack.

Bosses including new chief executive Alex Baldock are expected to be quizzed about the incident by shareholders at the meeting.

While Dixons said there had been no evidence fraud had been committed and most of the cards were protected by chip and PIN, the breach has raised serious questions over Dixons Carphone’s security.

The firm is carrying out its own inquiry aided by third-party cybersecurity experts, which is close to being completed, while the attack is also the subject of further investigation.

It comes not long after Dixons Carphone was fined £400,000 by the ICO in January after a 2015 cyberattack exposed the personal data of more than three million customers.

Apart from the recent breach, the group’s first-quarter trading update may show a boost to television sales from the summer’s World Cup football tournament.

Andrew Porteous, a retail analyst at HSBC, said: “Overall market conditions appear to have been relatively dull and have remained tough, as was flagged at the last update.

“The World Cup will have been a small boost, as will the warmer weather in July, when it was reported that fans sold out in many countries across Europe.”

The trading update could provide some light relief for Dixons, which posted a 24% slump in profits to £382 million for the year to April 28, and warned that cost pressures would hit profits once again in the year ahead.

The full-year results in June confirmed profits for 2018-19 are expected to drop to £300m, representing a fall of 22%.

Dixons Carphone also revealed plans in May to close nearly 100 stores.