ALERT: Fota Wildlife Park warns visitors to cancel bank cards following cyber attack

Recent visitors to one of Ireland's best-known tourist attractions are being advised that their financial and personal information may have been compromised following a cyber attack.

According to several reports, Fota Wildlife Park in Cork emailed customers on Wednesday having been alerted to a potential data breach, which occurred in recent months.

"There is a risk to your financial information,” it states, adding that customers should take measures to protect their bank accounts including changing passwords and cancelling debits or credit cards that were used to purchase tickets online. Customers are also being advised to review transactions on their accounts as far back as the beginning of May.

While the Fota Island Wildlife Park website remains offline, the park will be open to members of the public as normal this Thursday and day-to-day operations have not been affected.

"Our website is currently offline and we apologise for any inconvenience this may cause. Fota Wildlife Park is open to visitors as normal from 9.30am, with last entry at 4.30pm. Tickets can be purchased on entry to the Park," reads a temporary message posted on the homepage.

In a statement, a spokesperson for Fota Wildlife Park confirmed that "illegal cyber activity" was recently identified which impacted its website.

"The organisation’s incident response plan was immediately activated, an internal investigation was instigated and appropriate measures were taken to secure the organisation’s website. The incident has been notified to the relevant authorities and Fota Wildlife Park is cooperating with those authorities. Fota Wildlife Park is in the process of contacting all potentially impacted customers," they said adding: "In the meantime, Fota Wildlife Park’s day-to-day operations continue as normal."

It's understood the Data Protection Commissioner has been informed of the incident and that a number of investigations are now underway.

It's unclear at this stage how many customers, if any, have been impacted as a result of the cyber breach.