Play.com Confirms Customer Data Breach

Play.com has confirmed that it has suffered a data loss after one of the company's marketing partners experienced a security breach.

Online retailer Play.com was this week emailing customers after a security breach at a partner company resulted in customers’ data being stolen. Though credit card information is thought not to be involved, customer names and email addresses may have been compromised.

"We are emailing all our customers to let you know that a company that handles part of our marketing communications has had a security breach," the company said in a messaged sent to customers.

"Unfortunately this has meant that some customer names and email addresses may have been compromised."

ZDNet says that Jersey-based Play.com is now being probed by the Office of the Data Protection Commissioner.

"If a breach is identified, we can issue an enforcement notice or an undertaking... This is a strategy we use as a last resort," deputy commissioner Paul Vane said. "There is a possibility enforcement action could be used."

Play.com has asked that customers on the receiving end of any suspicious emails forward them to privacy@play.com. So far, details of the breach are not known. Play.com says the blame lies with a company called Silverpop. However, Silverpop says that while it did experience a breach in security in 2010, it did not believe this was affecting Play.com customers. A spokeswoman said they were reviewing all possibilities.

Read the full story on ZDNet.