Cyber-Attack Results In £400,000 Fine For Carphone Warehouse

Carphone Warehouse has been fined £400,000 by the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) for inadequacies in its data security measures that came to light following a cyber-attack.

The ICO, whose role is to uphold information rights in the public interest, found that the data of more than 18,000 customers had been compromised in the breach. This included personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and historic payment details.

The attack, which originated from Vietnam and lasted for over a week, was made possible because of vulnerabilities in WordPress software. The software, which was six years old at the time, had various vulnerabilities making it easier to attack and harvest a large amount of information.