Yahoo Finance Costa Coffee job applicants' details exposed in cyber attack on recruitment website
Whitbread, the parent company of businesses including Costa Coffee and Premier Inn, has suffered a data breach which exposed the personal information of people who had applied for jobs at its portfolio companies.
Travelodge, a rival to Premier Inn, also said on Monday that it had suffered a seemingly unrelated data breach.
A Whitbread spokesman confirmed that the company was a customer of Australia-headquartered PageUp, a technology company which develops software used to process job applications. PageUp announced last month that it had suffered a data breach.
An email sent to one person affected by the data breach said that information including their home address, email address, telephone number, maiden name, date of birth, and country of residence may have been stolen.
PageUp noticed an intrusion on its systems on May 23 and realised on May 28 that a malware attack had occurred. There was no evidence of an active threat remaining, the company said last month.
The company said that it had notified the UK's Information Commissioner's Office about its breach. A spokesman for the ICO said that "we are aware of an issue involving PageUp and are making enquiries." It's unclear when Whitbread became aware of the issue.
Premier Inn competitor Travelodge has also suffered a data breach, it announced on Monday. A company spokesman said that customer information including first name, date of birth, mobile number and email address had all been leaked online as part of a breach.
The Travelodge breach occurred due to a breach of third-party supplier Typeform, which handles surveys and competitions.
The Typeform breach has also affected retailer Fortnum & Mason. A spokesman for that company said on Monday that as many as 23,000 customers were affected after the retailer used Typeform for its recent food and drink awards.
Fortnum & Mason told customers in an email: "We can assure you that no bank or payment details have been involved, and your money and accounts are safe."
