Dixons Carphone has found a data breach involving 5.9 million payment cards and 1.2 million personal data records.

As part of a review of systems and data, the company determined unauthorised access to certain data. It launched an investigation with cyber security experts and added extra security measures.

“We have no evidence to date of any fraudulent use of the data as result of these incidents,” read a statement, adding that it has informed the police and relevant regulators.

The investigation found an attempt to compromise 5.9 million cards in one of the processing systems of Currys PC World and Dixons Travel stores, although 5.8m of these cards have chip and pin protection.

However, approximately 105,000 non-EU issued payment cards which do not have chip and pin protection have been compromised.

The company notified the relevant card companies and has no evidence of any fraud on these cards as a result of this incident.

Separately, the investigation found that 1.2m records containing non-financial personal data, such as name, address or email address, have been accessed. Again, there was no evidence that this information left systems or has resulted in any fraud at this stage.

“We are contacting those whose non-financial personal data was accessed to inform them, to apologise, and to give them advice on any protective steps they should take,” added the statement.

Dixons Carphone chief executive Alex Baldock said he was extremely disappointed and sorry for any upset this may cause.

“The protection of our data has to be at the heart of our business, and we’ve fallen short here,” he commented. “We’ve taken action to close off this unauthorised access and though we have currently no evidence of fraud as a result of these incidents, we are taking this extremely seriously.”

Baldock added: “Cyber crime is a continual battle for business today and we are determined to tackle this fast-changing challenge.”

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