A company offering software that allows people to spy on others has admitted it has been hacked and had thousands of customer records leaked online.

The admission comes a day after mSpy told BBC News it had not been hacked and no data had been stolen.

It has also emerged that the UK's Information Commissioner is investigating the company.

It told the BBC it was "aware of the breach and is trying to find out where the company is based".

MSpy offers software it says is aimed at parents worried about what their children are up to online and employers who want to legitimately track their employees.

But it is also used for more nefarious purposes, such as spouses spying on their partners.

Security expert Brian Krebs broke the news that a vast vault of highly personal data from mSpy customers had been dumped on the so-called dark web - an area of the internet that cannot be reached by traditional search engines.

He had been contacted by an anonymous source who had sent him a link to the data on a Tor-based site - technology that allows people to mask the identity of their websites.

BBC News has now also been sent links to the data, which it is currently analysing.