Vodafone UK blocks 1,800 accounts after 'external source' accesses accounts

Vodafone is the latest UK telco to suffer an attack on its databases, but reckons it shut the door on its data after just 1,800 records were compromised.

The attack didn't arise from a breach of Vodafone's systems, the company says. Rather, the attackers had obtained e-mail addresses and passwords from “an unknown source external to Vodafone”. In other words, the miscreants were testing records from some other breach to see which individuals re-used their passwords.

Details are sketchy, but Blomberg reports the intrusion was detected last week, with “attempts to access customer details between midnight on Wednesday and noon on Thursday”.

The company has called in the UK's National Crime Agency and notified the Information Commissioners' Office, the report says.

Vodafone says customer credit card details were not accessed, except for the last four digits of card numbers, but names and telephone numbers may have been obtained by the attackers.

Customer accounts that were accessed have been blocked and those customers are being contacted, and Voda has also informed the customers' banks of the potential breach. ®