Vodafone Germany hacked, 2 million customers’ Personal details and Bank info stolen

By Darshik Jariwala - September, 12th 2013

Vodafone in Germany was hacked and the hacker gained access to 2 million customers’ personal details. The company took the necessary steps to stop the attack as soon as they discovered about it to make sure no further harm was done.

The customer details which were compromised included customer names, address, date of birth, gender, sort code and bank account number. Vodafone says they are “certain” that information such as credit cards, passwords , PIN numbers , mobile phone numbers or data connection info were not accessed.

Vodafone said, only someone with inside knowledge could have breached the systems, and that the suspect has already been identified and the person’s assets have been seized. The company worked closely with the German supervisory and judicial authorities in order to do so.

This incident only affects Vodafone Germany customers. Vodafone took to their official blog informing about the attack and apologized. They have also sent letters to the affected customers and also took the opportunity to warn all its customers beforehand of the possible phishing attacks. The company said that, the offenders would not directly access the bank accounts, they might send out fake e-mails which would look like as if sent by Vodafone, in order to gain the PIN’s and passwords and other such details. They may even use phone calls for the same. Vodafone requests customers to be extra careful and alert, as any company representative would never request customers for any such information.

In the wake of recent attacks, all the companies have enhanced their security levels but one can never be too careful. Even though Vodafone was targeted, it should be noted that they controlled the situation as quickly as they could and even identified the person behind it. And most importantly, They were transparent about the incident and took ownership for it.

Bloomberg first informed about the attack, and it also reports that Vodafone shares fell 0.8 percent to 208.40 pence in London in the morning.

Vodafone is based in England and is the world’s second largest mobile carrier.

Photo Credit – Marcos Morales/Flickr