GoCardless Reveals 19 Laptops With Customer Data Were Stolen

GoCardless, the U.K. payment processing company, revealed that 19 laptops that had sensitive personal customer data on them were heisted from GoCardless offices in January.

According to a report, as a result of the robbery, GoCardless is giving customers who were impacted by the theft free credit monitoring. The laptops were password-protected but contained a document that included customer data, such as email addresses, passport numbers, dates of birth and names, noted the report. None of the customers’ financial information was exposed in the theft of the laptops, GoCardless said, according to the report.

“All of our payment processing systems are secure, remain uncompromised and were unaffected by the burglary,” said GoCardless in the report. “There has been no impact on our day-to-day business, and we continue to process payments as normal.”

The theft of the laptops has been reported to the police, as well as other government agencies in the U.K. GoCardless is offering to organize and pay for a monitoring service online that will alert customers to any actions against their credit. The service is from Experian and will be provided for 12 months free of charge. GoCardless hasn’t said how many customers were potentially exposed in the theft of the computers.

Theft at GoCardless comes at a time when U.K. companies are reeling from an increase in cyberattacks. The problem has gotten so bad that the U.K. government is reportedly gearing up to spend close to £2 billion over the course of the next five years to fight the growing number of cyberattacks in the country. According to a report, research suggests the U.K. is a particular target for data breaches that involve compromised employee account data. Chancellor of the Exchequer Philip Hammond said, according to the report, that the country is “an acknowledged global leader in cybersecurity.” Hammond went on to say, “We must now keep up with the scale and pace of the threats we face.” The way to do that, noted the report, is to increase spending to fight cyberattacks. The U.K. government plans to work with industry partners, such as Bath-based Netcraft — an outfit that specializes in internet security services and counts clients that include Microsoft, BT, Cisco and Intel.