GOLDHEART, the jewellery chain under Catalist-listed Aspial Lifestyle, on Monday (Jun 5) announced a data breach affecting close to 42,000 of its e-commerce customers. 

While financial data such as credit card information or passwords have not been accessed or retrieved by hackers, leaked information include customers’ names, addresses, emails, birth dates and phone numbers.

Disclosing this in a bourse filing, Goldheart said its forensic analysis to date has ascertained that its e-commerce website was the target of illegal and suspicious activities from an “external party”. It did not identify the party in question.

The illegal access was discovered on May 24. Following that, Goldheart said its team immediately launched a thorough investigation, which then found the personal information of its customers that was logged prior to November 2022 was compromised.

Goldheart said it has since taken steps to mitigate any further illegal access. They include suspending its e-commerce website, securing its systems and working with cybersecurity experts and relevant authorities.

The company has also moved to notify all affected customers of the incident, on top of notifying the Personal Data Protection Commissioner and reporting the incident to the police.

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Goldheart, meanwhile, stated its belief that there is limited risk of fraudulent activity for those affected due to the nature of the compromised data. 

“That said, we have asked all affected customers to take all necessary precautions, including ensuring that emails received are from legitimate senders and to review email links carefully,” it said.

Goldheart, nevertheless, said it takes the incident “very seriously”. 

Shares of Aspial Lifestyle closed 0.7 per cent or S$0.001 lower at S$0.141 on Monday, before the announcement.