Flutter Entertainment has confirmed a data breach affecting its Paddy Power and Betfair brands, with the incident coming to light on 8 July.
Key details
The breach involved the compromise of personal information, including usernames, email addresses, and the first lines of home addresses and cities. Images posted on social media highlighted the extent of the data accessed.
The company also reported that technical details, such as device IDs and IP addresses, as well as some recent account activity, were involved in the breach. While not all Paddy Power customers were affected, a significant number of users’ information was compromised.
Fully contained
Flutter has warned customers to remain vigilant, noting that criminals could use the data for phishing attempts or to impersonate account holders, although no misuse has been identified at this time.
Both the Information Commissioner’s Office and the Gambling Commission have been informed. Flutter stated that the breach is now fully contained and the incident is over. This follows a recent cyber-attack on the British Horseracing Authority and reflects a broader trend, with Marks & Spencer’s chief executive noting that 43% of UK businesses have experienced a cyber-attack in the past year.
A Flutter spokesperson said:
We can confirm that our Paddy Power and Betfair businesses have suffered a data incident involving personal information for some of our customers.
Immediately upon becoming aware of this incident, we informed relevant regulators and authorities and initiated a full investigation, supported by external IT security experts, to understand what happened and how we can better protect our networks and customers.”
The unauthorised access has been removed and the incident contained.”
Our investigation concluded that the affected information was isolated to limited betting account information. No passwords, ID documents or usable card or payment details were impacted. We are informing all affected customers.”
Safeguarding and securing our customers’ information is of the utmost importance to us.”
