A British payments company just admitted 7.8 million customers have been hacked

Paysafe, the London-listed payments company formerly known as Optimal Payments, admitted on Monday that 7.8 million customers had their account details hacked between 2009-2010.

3.6 million NETELLER accounts and 4.2 million Skrill accounts, both subsidiaries of Paysafe, were compromised. The Skrill hack happened before the company was acquired by Paysafe.

The company said less than 2% of those accounts hit by the hack were active in the 6 months to November 1 and that only "limited" information was taken that didn't include "passwords, card data or bank account information."

1,500 customers lost money through account hacks back in 2010, but Paysafe says it dealt with this breach, reimbursed the affected customers, and has since had no other reports of money being stolen in a similar way.

The company has also beefed up its security and Paysafe, which is listed on London's high-growth AIM market, is now "confident that this data will not in itself allow any existing NETELLER or Skrill customer accounts to be accessed."

Paysafe says:

The Group's executive management team, IT leadership and security protocols and standards have changed considerably since the breaches more than five years ago. The significant investment made to cybersecurity in recent years will continue into the future as Paysafe works to ensure it has the appropriate systems in place to defend against cybersecurity threats.

The hack was first revealed back in October, sending shares crashing 18%. Today is the first time we've known exactly how many accounts have been hacked, but shares are down just 0.62% this morning, probably reflecting the damage limitation the company has emphasised in the update.