WH Smith staff data accessed in cyber attack

The retailer said that once it became aware of the incident, it immediately launched an investigation, engaged specialist support services and implemented its incident response plans, which included notifying the relevant authorities.

"WH Smith takes the issue of cyber security extremely seriously and investigations into the incident are ongoing. We are notifying all affected colleagues and have put measures in place to support them," it said.

"There has been no impact on the trading activities of the group."

The company noted that its website, customer accounts and underlying customer databases are on separate systems that are unaffected by the incident.