Morrisons' employee arrested over payroll data theft

Data Theft

A Morrisons employee has been arrested in connection with the company's payroll data theft.

The supermarket giant admitted suffering a data breach last week, which saw the firm's payroll data stolen.

According to reports from Reuters, the grocer was made aware of the theft when data was published on the internet and a disc sent to the Telegraph and Argus newspaper, based in Morrisons' home town of Bradford.

The stolen information included names, addresses and bank account details of staff members, although it was not known at the time how many of its 130,000 employees were affected.

"Initial investigations suggest 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," the firm said in a statement, at the time.

"We have already informed our colleagues about the theft and we are helping them take the appropriate actions to safeguard their personal data."

West Yorkshire Police have been supporting Morrisons' investigation into the breach, and confirmed in a statement yesterday that an arrest has now been made.

The suspect is an employee of the company, and has been arrested on suspicion of making or supplying an article for use in fraud.

Gary Hooks, Detective Chief Inspector of protective services at West Yorkshire Police, said: "An employee of Morrisons has been arrested in Leeds this morning [Monday 17 March] in connection with an investigation into the theft of data from the company.

"He is currently in custory," Hooks added.

In the wake of the breach, Morrisons said it would be reviewing its data security measures, and said it has informed banks of the theft and will work with them to maintain account security.

*This story was originally published on Friday 14 March, before being updated on Tuesday 18 March with new information about case progress.

Caroline Donnelly is the news and analysis editor of IT Pro and its sister site Cloud Pro, and covers general news, as well as the storage, security, public sector, cloud and Microsoft beats. Caroline has been a member of the IT Pro/Cloud Pro team since March 2012, and has previously worked as a reporter at several B2B publications, including UK channel magazine CRN, and as features writer for local weekly newspaper, The Slough and Windsor Observer. She studied Medical Biochemistry at the University of Leicester and completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Magazine Journalism at PMA Training in 2006.