MORE than 120,000 Bettys customers have been warned that their personal details may have been accessed following an unprecedented data breach.

The Harrogate-based bakery and tearooms business has emailed all its online customers to say its website database has been breached.

Communications director Rachel Fellows said the breach happened as the result of an industry-wide software weakness that allowed someone to illegally gain access to and copy some of its customer data.

Information including names, email addresses, postal addresses, encrypted passwords and telephone numbers of customers may have been accessed.

But Rachel stressed that credit or debit card details had not been copied, as this information was stored on a completely separate system managed by a certified third party.

"Bettys takes customer confidentiality extremely seriously and we have carried out a full investigation with our security partners," she said.

"The software issue has been addressed and further security measures have been put in place.

"Whilst customer passwords were encrypted, there is a risk that they could still be vulnerable so, we’re contacting all customers with details of the situation and advice regarding password protection.

"It’s a completely unprecedented event for us and we’re extremely sorry that the breach has occurred.”

A website which has been created specifically to deal with this issue, help.bettys.co.uk, says that whilst customer passwords were encrypted, it is important customers change their password as soon as possible.

Customers are also advised to treat any unsolicited phone or future email communication regarding their personal and financial information, claiming to come from Bettys, with extreme caution. "To be clear, Bettys will never contact you and ask you to share any personal financial information."