Funky Pigeon temporarily suspends orders after cyber incident
Online greeting card and gift retailer Funky Pigeon has announced it was the victim of a cyberattack last week, affecting part of its systems.
The WHSmith-owned retailer took its systems offline as a precautionary measure after detecting the issue, and has temporarily suspended orders while it works to restore services.
The retailer's website currently shows the message: 'Oops! We're experiencing some issues and we can't accept new orders at the moment. Please try again later!'
After it identified the incident last Thursday, Funky Pigeon launched a probe led by external experts to understand its scope.
The retailer claims that no customer payment data, such as credit card or bank account details, had been placed at risk, as such details are processed via third parties and are securely encrypted. There is also no evidence to suggest that any customer passwords were compromised.
However, the retailer is investigating whether customers' personal data - such as names, email accounts, addresses and personalised gift design - was accessed.
'We take the security of customer data extremely seriously and we have temporarily suspended any new orders via the website,' the company says.
Funky Pigeon has informed the relevant authorities and regulators, and says it will continue to review its protocols based on what it learned from the incident - a very standard line from a cyberattack victim.
'We would like to sincerely apologise to our customers for any concern or disruption this may cause, and reassure them that our teams are working around the clock to investigate and resolve this incident.'
The company is now contacting all customers from the past 12 months to inform them about the hack.
WHSmith Group said it did not expect the incident to have a material impact on its financial position.
Cybersecurity experts are advising Funky Pigeon customers to remain extra vigilant for social engineering attacks in the coming weeks.
The incident marks the second cyberattack on a UK retailer this month following a similar incident at art and crafts retailer The Works, which was forced to close several stores.
The Works, which operates more than 520 outlets across the UK, experienced a 'minor' interruption to trade and business operations after hackers accessed the company's computer systems and caused issues with its tills. The hack caused fresh stock deliveries to Works stores to be temporarily halted, and also resulted in extended delivery times for online orders.
Last month, a UK government report said that two in five UK businesses detected at least one cyberattack on their operations in the last 12 months.
The report pegged the average cost of a cyberattack last year at £4,200 - or £19,400 excluding small firms.