Web hosting firm Fasthosts is to change the passwords of some of its customers following a hack attack.

The company is taking the action after its servers suffered an intrusion, and account details were compromised.

Users will receive new passwords by post to ensure that account details are protected.

"Fasthosts was made aware today that a very small number of customers who did not change their passwords had experienced a compromise to their FTP space," the company said in a statement.

"Fasthosts considers that its practices and procedures are up to date, and represent good practice in continually protecting the security of its customer data, and the company remains fully confident in its ability to do so."

Companies are taking an increasingly hard line about dangers to personal customer information.

Although no law on data breaches exists in this country, businesses are increasingly taking action on their own to avoid litigation.