One of the biggest data breaches in Europe in recent years has put the personal information of 1.5 million people at risk. The attack on loyalty card firm, Loyaltybuild, compromised the credit card details of around 376,000 European citizens as well as names, addresses, phone numbers and email addresses of thousands more.

Supervalu uses Loyaltybuild to process customer data for its Getaway Breaks scheme. The Irish convenience retailer brought the issue to light last week when it said about 39,000 of its customers had been exposed to credit card fraud.

However the data breach, which affected Co Clare based Loyaltybuild, was worse than orginally thought. An initial investigation by the commissioner’s office at Loyaltybuild indicated more than 70,000 Supervalu Getaway customers had their credit card details stolen.

Some 8,000 Axa Leisure Break customers were similarly affected. The details of an additional 150,000 customers were “potentially compromised”, commissioner Billy Hawkes said.

It is not yet clear exactly how the information was obtained.

Check Point’s UK technical director, Tom Davison, says: “This breach is far more extensive than originally thought, with details of over a million customers exposed. People need to check their credit card statements, and be very cautious about clicking on links in emails which claim to be from LoyaltyBuild or its affiliates, no matter how authentic they seem to be. There’s a very real risk that attackers will use the details exposed in the attack to send phishing emails to users, to try and harvest more sensitive data."

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