Image: © serg_did/Stock.adobe.com
Fota is advising recent customers to cancel their credit cards and change their passwords as a cyberattacker managed to infiltrate the park’s website.
Cork’s Fota Wildlife Park has been disrupted by a cyberattack and recent customers are being advised to cancel their bank cards.
The park’s website is currently offline because of the disruption and emails have been sent out to customers warning them that their financial data may be compromised. In these emails seen by RTÉ, Fota said anyone who carried out a transaction on the website between 12 May 2024 and 27 August 2024 is at risk.
Fota informed customers that it recently became aware of illegal activity on its website and is now working to identify what data was accessed by the attackers. The park said customers that have a Fota account may have also had their usernames, passwords and email addresses compromised by the incident.
The park advised customers to review their bank account statements since 12 May to make sure there was no suspicious activity.
Fota Wildlife Park did not respond to a request for comment from SiliconRepublic.com at time of publication, nor has it said how many people may be impacted by this incident.
The park told RTÉ that it is in the process of contacting all potentially impacted customers and has notified both An Garda Síochána and the Data Protection Commission. While the website remains disrupted, Fota said its day-to-day operations are continuing as normal, with visitors able to purchase tickets at the park.
The risk of data breaches
Breaches such as this can cause serious impacts for customers – apart from the obvious importance of credit and debit card details, personal information can also be utilised by cyberattackers for future attacks.
If a password is stolen by cyberattackers, they may try to use this password to access other accounts connected to the victim. Personal details such as names, addresses and phone numbers can also be used by cyberattackers in phishing attacks.
Data breaches remain a serious threat for businesses worldwide. A recent IBM report found that the global average cost of a data breach from March 2023 to February 2024 was $4.88m, an increase of 10pc compared to the previous year.
Find out how emerging tech trends are transforming tomorrow with our new podcast, Future Human: The Series. Listen now on Spotify, on Apple or wherever you get your podcasts.
