Customers who purchased tickets online for Fota Wildlife Park in Cork recently have been told to cancel debit or credit cards following a cyberattack.
Those who carried out a transaction on Fota’s website from May 12th to August 27th were warned their financial information may be compromised.
An email issued to customers “strongly recommended” taking action.
They were urged to cancel debit or credit cards and to review transactions since May 12th, to identify any suspicious activity.
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Fota Wildlife Park cyberattack: Customers advised to cancel cards after details compromised
Those who have user accounts on the Fota website were told their username, password and email linked to the account may also be compromised and were urged to change their password if used for other accounts.
“On becoming aware of this activity, we took immediate steps to investigate and identify what information had been accessed on our website in order to carry out containment measures,” the email reads.
“One of the steps that we have taken is to remove all access to the user accounts on the website.”
Fota said it has have engaged external forensic cycber security experts who are investigating the incident which has been notified to the Data Protection Commission adding that it will co-operate fully with an investigation.
“We understand this may be of significant concern to you. We would like to assure you that we take our responsibility to protect your personal and financial information seriously and have given this matter the utmost priority,” customers were told.
In a statement, Fota Wildlife Park said it “can confirm that illegal cyber activity was recently identified which impacted its website.
“The organisation’s incident response plan was immediately activated, an internal investigation was instigated and appropriate measures were taken to secure the organisation’s website.
“The incident has been notified to the relevant authorities and Fota Wildlife Park is co-operating with those authorities. Fota Wildlife Park is in the process of contacting all potentially impacted customers.
“In the meantime, Fota Wildlife Park’s day-to-day operations continue as normal.”
A spokeswoman for the Data Protection Commission confirmed that it received a breach motivation from Fota Wildlife Park which is currently being assessed.
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