WHSmith experienced a data breach incident in September 2015 because of a glitch in its IT system.
Its website randomly started sending out hundreds of private emails to people on its mailing list which resulted in the leakage of data of about 22 customers.
The compromised data included real names, phone numbers, postal addresses, and email addresses of people trying to contact WHSmith.
WHSmith immediately took preventive steps and apologized to the impacted persons.
Source: https://www.wired.co.uk/article/whsmith-data-breach-customer-emails
TPRM report: https://scoringcyber.rankiteo.com/company/whsmith
"id": "whs233319422",
"linkid": "whsmith",
"type": "Breach",
"date": "09/2015",
"severity": "75",
"impact": "4",
"explanation": "Attack with significant impact with customers data leaks"{'affected_entities': [{'customers_affected': '22',
'industry': 'Retail',
'name': 'WHSmith',
'type': 'Retailer'}],
'attack_vector': 'IT System Glitch',
'data_breach': {'number_of_records_exposed': '22',
'personally_identifiable_information': ['real names',
'phone numbers',
'postal addresses',
'email addresses'],
'type_of_data_compromised': ['real names',
'phone numbers',
'postal addresses',
'email addresses']},
'date_detected': 'September 2015',
'description': 'WHSmith experienced a data breach incident in September 2015 '
'because of a glitch in its IT system. Its website randomly '
'started sending out hundreds of private emails to people on '
'its mailing list which resulted in the leakage of data of '
'about 22 customers. The compromised data included real names, '
'phone numbers, postal addresses, and email addresses of '
'people trying to contact WHSmith. WHSmith immediately took '
'preventive steps and apologized to the impacted persons.',
'impact': {'data_compromised': ['real names',
'phone numbers',
'postal addresses',
'email addresses'],
'systems_affected': ['Website']},
'post_incident_analysis': {'root_causes': 'IT System Glitch'},
'response': {'communication_strategy': 'Apologized to impacted persons',
'containment_measures': 'Preventive steps taken'},
'title': 'WHSmith Data Breach',
'type': 'Data Breach',
'vulnerability_exploited': 'IT System Glitch'}