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Morrisons staff hit by theft of payroll details [Western Mail (Wales)](Western Mail (Wales) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) STRUGGLING supermarket Morrisons suffered a fresh blow yesterday after payroll data relating to thousands of employees, including bank account details, was stolen and published on a website. It comes a day after Britain's fourth biggest supermarket tumbled to a Pounds 176m annual loss and issued a profits warning, sending shares down by 12%. Morrisons said police had been informed of the data theft, which affects staff from all levels of the organisation including the board, but would not comment on whether chief executive Dalton Philips was among them. The supermarket said it became aware of the data theft hours after it announced financial results to the City and that Mr Philips was leading the response. It wrote to all employees with an email address to inform them of the data theft, while managers were also informing worrkers at its sites. The company posted a Facebook statement, but some staff voiced disquiet that they learned of the breach in this way. It said: "We are very sorry that this has happened. We will ensure that no colleague will be left financially disadvantaged as a result of this theft." Morrisons did not say how many of its 130,000 employees were affected. The supermarket said in a statement: "On Thursday, March 13, Morrisons was made aware that data from its staff payroll system had been stolen, published on the internet and sent on a disc to a newspaper. "This data theft included bank account details. Morrisons immediately ensured it was taken off the website. "Initial investigations suggest that this theft was not the result of an external penetration of our systems. We can confirm there has been no loss of customer data and no colleague will be left financially disadvantaged. "We have already informed our colleagues about the theft and we are helping them take the appropriate actions to safeguard their personal data." Morrisons said it was urgently reviewing internal data security measures. It was working with cybercrime authorities and police to identify the source of the theft and experts had been brought in to ensure staff did not suffer financial losses. (c) 2014 ProQuest Information and Learning Company; All Rights Reserved. |