Customers of Vodafone in Germany Advised to be Wary of Scam E-mails

Security professionals are cautioning Vodafone customers; principally those based in Germany, of a probable surge in phishing email attacks following an insider at the telecom giant (referring to Vodafone) gained access to a company database and embezzled personal details of as many as 2 Million clients, as reported threatpost.com on September 12, 2013.

Phishing schemes often come in the form of deceiving and familiar emails or telephone calls asking for information and pins of credit card and emails often contain a malicious link which could place malware on the person's computer.

Vodafone in Germany said that German Police Authorities have a suspect who has accessed names, addresses, birthdays and account numbers of bank along with other personal data of customers. However, the company said that credit card numbers, PINs, passwords, and also the mobile phone numbers of clients were not stolen.

The European communications giant apologized in a statement for the mishap and said that all affected customers are being informed and continues to work with German authorities to secure the network.

The network provider also requested those affected to keep tabs on their bank accounts and ensure no irregular activities.

Affected customers of Vodafone should change their security details of accounts. They should also do it on phone just in case their PC is infected and they should check and scan their machines with additional external security.

Infosecurity-magazine.com published a report on 12th September, 2013 quoting a comment on the latest attack by George Anderson, Senior marketing Manager of security firm Webroot as saying "This attack is surprising despite having strict German protection method around auditing of data access and encryption of sensitive information. It highlights how easily customer data fall into the wrong hands despite having such precautionary environments. A threat from insider can have equally bad, if not more, consequences than external ones.

Vodafone is the latest high-profile company to announce a breach of security and last month (August 2013) there were attacks by hackers on Google Inc., Twitter Inc. and the New York Times. KT Corp., South Korea's largest phone and Internet company, said that their customer's data were leaked by hackers most in July, 2012.

» SPAMfighter News - 9/23/2013