Seattle-based technology etailer, Egghead.com, has had a miserable Christmas after admitting it was hacked late last week.

The scale of the problem is not known but it's feared that the hackers could have accessed the credit card details of the Egghead's customers.

In a statement issued on Friday, 22 December, Egghead said: "Egghead.com has discovered that a hacker has accessed our computer systems, potentially including our customer databases.

"As a precautionary measure, we have taken immediate steps to protect our customers by contacting the credit card companies we work with.

"They are in the process of alerting card issuers and banks so that they can take the necessary steps to ensure the security of cardholders who may be affected.

"Simultaneously, we have retained the world's leading computer security experts to conduct a thorough investigation of our security procedures and an analysis of this breach.

"We are also working with law enforcement authorities, who are in the process of conducting a criminal investigation.

"For many months, we have been in the process of strengthening our security systems in an effort to combat the increasing, industry-wide problem of malicious hacking," it said.

In October The Register reported that Egghead.com faced the threat of legal action after cancelling orders for wrongly priced memory modules on its site.

Thousands of orders were placed by punters eager to cash in on the DRAM modules offered at $34.85 - instead of the correct price of $335. D'oh! ®

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