Internet hosting company Blacknight is investigating a security breach that could have put client contact details at risk.

Although Blacknight is still trying to establish the scale of the breach, it said no financial data had been compromised. The incident may have affected the email addresses of more than 40,000 customers.

The situation was discovered after some customers contacted the company about spam messages they were receiving to email accounts used with Blacknight. It is not yet known who carried out the attack, or why Blacknight was targeted.

“Unfortunately the reality is that we and our customers are attacked on a daily basis,” said Blacknight chief executive Michele Neylon, apologising to customers for the incident.

“We’re trying to deal with it as responsibly as we can.”

Customers were informed of the issue this morning. Mr Neylon said the Data Protection Commissioner is aware of the breach, which happened on January 31st. Gardaí will be contacted in connection with the investigation too.

Blacknight is advising customers to change passwords for their Blacknight accounts following the incident, and to watch for suspicious activity on online accounts.

The breach has also triggered a review of security at the company to prevent a re-occurrence of the issue.