Investigators from Ireland's office of the Data Protection Commissioner will visit a firm in county Clare today to find out how the credit card details of over 62,500 Supervalu customers were compromised.
Last week, Super Valu warned customers of its loyalty holiday scheme, which is operated by another company called Loyaltybuild, that their banking information may have been accessed by a third party.
The programme has since been suspended and the data protection commissioner was informed of the leak - but at the time SuperValu said it was not aware of any breaches of financial information
Last night a statement by SuperValu warned customers that Loyaltybuild had advised the Data Protection Commissioner that the security breach of its system “is more extensive than it first anticipated”.
It was first thought that the information breach affected over 39,000 people.
Clare-based Loyaltybuild also manages similar schemes for other companies throughout Europe.
Customers are being warned to treat any unsolicited communication claiming to represent Supervalu Getaway Breaks or Loyaltybuild with “extreme caution”.
Speaking on RTÉ’s Morning Ireland programme, Mr Hawkes said the key thing was for customers is to check the financial transactions on their credit cards over the last two years.