Shareholders will quiz Dixons on massive 2017 data breach
RETAILER Dixons Carphone will reveal its latest trading update and prepare to face shareholders on Thursday following the massive data breach involving nearly 16 million customer records.
In a shocking admission last month, the Currys and PC World group revealed that 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 on Thursday, 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 that 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 cyber security experts, which is close to being completed, while the attack is also the subject of further investigation.
The Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), the National Crime Agency (NCA) and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) are all taking an interest.
It is thought Dixons Carphone will escape hefty fines under the new regime, given that the data breach began in July last year, well before the new European General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) rules came into force on May 25.
However, the ICO said it is still determining whether the case is dealt with under the 1998 or 2018 Data Protection Act.
It comes not long after Dixons Carphone was fined £400,000 by the ICO in January after a 2015 cyber attack 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.”