WH Smith PLC on Thursday said it has been the target of a cyber security incident which has resulted in illegal access to some company data, including current and former employee data.

WH Smiths is a books and stationary retailer that operates on UK high streets as well as in travel locations such as airports and train stations globally.

WH Smith said that 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,’ the company commented.

It added that there has been no impact on the trading activities of the company; its website, customer accounts and customer databases are on a separate system, which are unaffected by the incident.

WH Smith also said that ‘strong trading’ has continued since it updated the market in January. It plans to report its results for the half year to February 28 on April 20.

Shares in WH Smith were down 1.0% to 1,568.50 pence each in London on Thursday morning.

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