Vodafone Iceland Hacked, 70,000 User's Personal Data Leaked

[Steven Bogos]

Vodafone Iceland Hacked, 70,000 User's Personal Data Leaked

Among the data leaked was some highly-sensitive text-messages from Icelandic politicians.

A Turkish hacker group broke into the official Vodafone.is website and stole thousands of user's personal data, uploading it to a website for all to see. Among the 70,000 users hacked were some Icelandic politicians, and the country's reporters are confirming that some highly-sensitive text-messages were made available for anyone to read.

Vodafone's PR initially claimed that no confidential information had been compromised in the attack, but as customers started to simply look up their own Vodafone numbers in the hacker's database, they could confirm themselves that data was leaked.

Vodafone has since sent out an updated statement, saying the company is working with the best data and net security specialists available to investigate the scope of the incident.

Icelandic reporters did not release any of the politician's names associated with the leaked messages, but said that they alluded to some very sensitive topics in the Icelandic government.

The hacking group left hash tags such as #USAisTerroristCountry on the Vodafone website, suggesting that Iceland's ties to America are the reason behind the attack.

Vodafone Iceland is now urging all of its users to change their passwords, especially if they use the same password for multiple accounts.

Source: Grapevine.is [http://www.grapevine.is/News/ReadArticle/Confidential-Info-Leaked-After-Vodafone-Hacking]

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[Morsomk_v1legacy]

Well...this is an odd one. I honestly wasn't expecting this to pop up on the Escapist. I and my family are in with Vodafone so....yeah, my mother was kinda freaking out honestly.

And before anyone asks, almost nothing was taken from us. The only exception was a small Text message my sister in Reykjavík had.

 

[Klumpfot]

Well, that's awful. 70,000 is almost a quarter of the country's inhabitants, so this is a pretty major leak.

 

[Strazdas]

wait, so Vodafone not only keeps your passwords unencrypted but also stores your text messages? And you allow them to do this privacy law breaking?

 

[CriticalMiss]

Vodafone's PR initially claimed that no confidential information had been compromised in the attack, but as customers started to simply look up their own Vodafone numbers in the hacker's database, they could confirm themselves that data was leaked.

OOPS! I know corporate PR is all about bullshitting people these days but that seems like it's a bit too blatant a lie when it was apparently so easy to check.

Anyway, this is basically what the NSA are doing but on a much smaller scale and with silly hashtags. #DemHaxx0rs

 

[viggih7]

Whew, dodged a bullet on that one (I've never done business with vodafone) Still, a crying shame that it happened

 

[Denamic]

Whew, dodged a bullet on that one (I've never done business with vodafone) Still, a crying shame that it happened

But have you texted anyone with a Vodafone account? You may still be compromised by association.

 

[kailus13]

What did this hacker group think they could accomplish exactly? Besdies getting everyone in Iceland pissed off at Turkey, they don't seem to have done much.

And really, hashtags should only be put on twitter. If you have the freedom to write anything, hashtags aren't needed.

 

[viggih7]

Whew, dodged a bullet on that one (I've never done business with vodafone) Still, a crying shame that it happened

But have you texted anyone with a Vodafone account? You may still be compromised by association.

Nope, I only text my gf and she's with the same phone company as me.

 

[Product Placement]

The funniest part about this story is that now that people are going through these texts, since it's now been leaked online, one particular user was being publicly accused of being a drug dealer.

The text, roughly translated to English, went "This thing is amazing. If you can make few thousand of it, I bet I could sell them at *name of a large local outdoor festival* for a killing."

Turns out that he was designing a new toy, meant for outdoor activity.