High street chain, Dixons Carphone, which is responsible for the retail brand Currys PC World, has revealed this month that it was hit by a serious security breach, leaving private information accessible to malicious third parties.

The Register reports that the attack apparently targeted data relating to almost six million payment cards, of which 5.8 million are apparently protected by chip and PIN technology which should mean that they are safe from exploitation.

Furthermore, around 1.2 million user accounts were accessed, although the company will need to carry out further investigations before it can come to any firm conclusions about the extent of the damage that has been done and work out whether customers are at risk of fraud.

The company said that it has notified the payment card providers in order to ensure that any suspicious account activity following the breach can be spotted and dealt with sooner rather than later.

It also claimed that so far no signs of fraudulent spending have been seen in the aftermath of the breach, although it is perhaps too early to be entirely confident that this will not occur.

All retailers are responsible for ensuring that customers can carry out safe shopping online without fearing for the integrity of their private data, especially when it comes to payment cards. However, Dixons Carphone is not the only company to be hit by a major hack. Nor indeed is this the first time that it has fallen victim to one itself.

While consumers should be able to trust major firms to offer safe shopping online, no organisation is completely immune to attacks. Because of this, it is important for customers to stay informed about the latest security news and take appropriate action after a hack so that they do not become targets themselves.