The British Southern Water reports a major leak: hundreds of thousands of customer data have been stolen by hackers
The company has warned that the data of up to 470,000 British customers of water supplier Southern Water has been stolen by hackers.
While investigations into the exact number of affected customers are still ongoing, Southern Water has released a statement saying it plans to notify “5 to 10 percent” of its customers.
a BBC According to the report, the stolen data included customers’ bank account details and reference numbers, social security numbers and dates of birth. Southern Water has not commented on exactly what data was stolen.
Another data breach? Damn!
A statement from Southern Water spokesperson Simon Fluendy confirmed this TechCrunch that between 235,000 and 470,000 of the 4.7 million customers’ data was stolen in the breach.
The company also plans to notify its 6,000 current employees and some former employees whose data may have also been stolen by the hackers.
Although Southern Water has not commented on how their networks were breached, a cyber gang known as Black Basta reported shortly after the incident that they had stolen 750 gigabytes of data from the company and would release it if a ransom was not paid .
The gang also posted images purporting to confirm their possession of the data, including sensitive information such as employee passports.
Southern Water has said it is working with experts to determine the extent of the damage and has notified the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of the incident. The ICO and the National Cyber Security Center recently launched a joint letter urging the public not to pay ransoms if their data is stolen.