Play.com admits security breach

Popular UK online retailer Play.com has admitted its customer database was recently the scene of a security breach.

CEO John Perkins sent an email out to customers explaining that on March 20th some customers had receiving a spam email to email addresses they only use for Play.com.

"We reacted immediately by informing all our customers of this potential security breach in order for them to take the necessary precautionary steps,” he said.

Perkins said that the issue could be related to "irregular activity” that  was traced back to December 2010 at its email service provider, Silverpop.

"Investigations at the time showed no evidence that any of our customer email addresses had been downloaded. We would like to assure all our customers that the only information communicated to our email service provider was email addresses.”

Perkins said that all other personal information such as credit cards, addresses and passwords are kept in the very secure Play.com environment.

"Play.com has one of the most stringent internal standards of eCommerce security in the industry,” he added. "This is audited and tested several times a year by leading internet security companies to ensure this high level of security is maintained.”

Popular travel website TripAdvisor has also come forward with details of a recent breach. The firm sent out an email to users explaining the hackers had only made off with email addresses.