Data breach at Fastway Couriers hits thousands of shoppers

12 Mar 2021

Image: © Freedomz/Stock.adobe.com

A cyberattack on the parcel delivery company has compromised personal details from more than 440,000 parcel deliveries.

Fastway Couriers has confirmed that one of its IT systems was subject to a cyberattack that was identified on 25 February.

Names, addresses, emails and/or phone numbers from the recipients of 446,143 parcel deliveries have been compromised, the company said. It added that no financial information has been compromised and that this is not stored on any of its systems.

According to Fastway, the compromised data relates to deliveries, in-flight or undelivered parcels over a period of around 30 days from mid-January onwards. The breach may have affected customers in Ireland and in other jurisdictions.

The breach was identified by Fastway’s third-party IT development contractor on 25 February and was fully mitigated by 9am on 26 February. The IT contractor advised Fastway of the breach on 2 March.

On learning of the breach, Fastway said it advised the Data Protection Commission and the Gardaí. It also made a requisite data breach submission to the Data Protection Commission.

In a statement, Fastway CEO Danny Hughes said it was distressing that the company’s system was compromised by a malicious attack. “I deeply regret that people’s personal data has been compromised and I apologise to our clients and their customers,” he said.

“I want to stress that nobody’s financial data was at risk and the issue is limited to delivery information only. We will continue to work closely with the DPC, the Gardaí and our clients to manage this situation in line with best practice.”

If customers have any concerns, they are advised to contact Fastway directly.

The Irish Data Protection Commission has confirmed to Siliconrepublic.com that it is was notified of the breach last week and is currently investigating it.

The breach comes around a year after the first public health restrictions were announced in response to Covid-19. With many physical stores and businesses closed, large numbers of consumers turned to online shopping and parcel deliveries.

Jenny Darmody is the editor of Silicon Republic

editorial@siliconrepublic.com