Data Breach Incident

[ScottishSteve]

Be aware folks.

I’ve just been informed by Virgin Media that they recently became aware that some of your personal information, stored on one of our databases has been accessed without permission. Our investigation is ongoing but we currently understand that the database was accessible from at least 19 April 2019 and that the information has been recently accessed.

More details can be found here

https://www.virginmedia.com/help/data-incident

[iadom]

Just received the email. I did have a marketing call today from someone with a very strong Asian accent but although the caller sounded vague the number 08000521251 does appear to be a legitimate VM number.

[JMcB]

Got this via email

Dear NAME, We are very sorry to have to inform you that we recently became aware that some of your personal information, stored on one of our databases has been accessed without permission. Our investigation is ongoing but we currently understand that the database was accessible from at least 19 April 2019 and that the information has been recently accessed.

To reassure you, the database did NOT include any of your passwords or financial details, such as bank account number or credit card information.

The database was used to manage information about our existing and potential customers in relation to some of our marketing activities. This included: contact details (such as name, home and email address and phone numbers), technical and product information, including any requests you may have made to us using forms on our website. In a very small number of cases, it included date of birth. Please note that this is all of the types of information in the database, but not all of this information may have related to you.

We take our responsibility to protect your personal information seriously. We know what happened, why it happened and as soon as we became aware we immediately shut down access to the database and launched a full independent forensic investigation. We have also informed the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Given the nature of the information involved, there is a risk you might be targeted for phishing attempts, fraud or nuisance marketing communications. We understand that you will be concerned so we are writing to everybody affected to provide reassurance, guidance and support. We have put all of the latest information on our website https://www.virginmedia.com/help/data-incident, including some advice on how to stay safe online, such as: • Advice from the Information Commissioner's Office on how you can avoid or report nuisance marketing calls, emails and texts (https://ico.org.uk/) • How to be vigilant by not providing your personal information to anyone suspicious online, by phone, email or text. If you want more information, you can get it here https://www.getsafeonline.org/protec...nd-scam-email/ • How you can protect yourself from the risk of identity theft (which is when someone uses someone else’s personal information to obtain goods, services or money without permission) and other types of fraud. The Information Commissioner’s Office has information online here https://ico.org.uk/your-data-matters/identity-theft/ Although no financial, banking details or account passwords were accessed, it is always a good idea to make sure that your passwords are strong and not easy to guess. There is some advice here on how to set a strong password https://www.virginmedia.com/help/how...trong-password. If having read this email and visited our website you still have questions, you can contact us on 0800 052 2621, but please be aware our customer service advisors do not have any further information at this stage. Once again, we sincerely apologise for what has happened. Lutz Schueler CEO, Virgin Media

[djmagnifique]

Probably explains why for the last several months i've had an increase of spam emails that seem to have now stopped.

[Skie]

Hardly surprising. VM's security practices are a bit lax. The passwords for my VM are still:

8-10 characters long, letters and numbers only, no spaces. First character must be a letter.

That is a hilariously small namespace to brute force and doesn't encourage strong passwords at all.

[SnoopZ]

Not had an email so hopefully I am lucky.

[punkrock101]

Originally Posted by Skie

Hardly surprising. VM's security practices are a bit lax. The passwords for my VM are still:


That is a hilariously small namespace to brute force and doesn't encourage strong passwords at all.

It’s a complete joke make a secure password as long as it’s 8 to 10 characters and doesn’t contain special characters. I have tweeted them about their lax password before and no response.

[JPAC]

In the news now; https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-51760510

[Martin_D]

Originally Posted by djmagnifique

Probably explains why for the last several months i've had an increase of spam emails that seem to have now stopped.

Yes same it’s been very annoying

[Mr K]

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...y_to_clipboard

A 'marketing' database apparently. Makes even more sense to opt out of all marketing, so your details aren't shared about so much. They should lock a few VM execs up for not to protecting data securely. They'd soon tighten up.

[punkrock101]

Originally Posted by Mr K

https://www.theguardian.com/media/20...y_to_clipboard

A 'marketing' database apparently. Makes even more sense to opt out of all marketing, so your details aren't shared about so much. They should lock a few VM execs up for not to protecting data securely. They'd soon tighten up.

Funny thing is I have opted out of marketing From virgin media years ago and still I got an email saying my details were part of a data breach.

[Kushan]

Originally Posted by punkrock101

Funny thing is I have opted out of marketing From virgin media years ago and still I got an email saying my details were part of a data breach.

It's entirely possible that your details were part of a database that contained a "Optin: false" flag.

[heero_yuy]

Not had an email but for the last few months my ex-directory VM phone line is getting a cold call at least once a day.

[SnoopZ]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Not had an email so hopefully I am lucky.

Just got the email, bollocks to Virginmedia not happy.

[denphone]

Originally Posted by SnoopZ

Just got the email, bollocks to Virginmedia not happy.

Keeping it hidden from the public domain for that period is not good.