Millions of shoppers have had details of their debit and credit cards stolen in what is thought to be the world's biggest theft of its kind.
Hackers obtained the details of more than 45 million transactions from TJX, the American parent company of the discount retailer TK Maxx, from its computer systems based in the US and England.
The theft affects purchases made over a 16-month period from December 2002.
TK Maxx has seven stores in Ireland, including outlets at the St Stephen's Green shopping centre in Dublin, the Letterkenny Retail Park in County Donegal and the Quayside shopping centre in Sligo.
The firm said it did not know how many of the cardholders affected were shoppers in Britain and Ireland, but most of them were likely to be American.
The company's computers were first accessed in 2005 and from mid-May last year to mid-January this year.
Customers' names and addresses were not stored on the systems with the card numbers, and it is not thought that PIN numbers could have been accessed.
