StarHub Customers’ Leaked Info Includes IC & Mobile Numbers
When we procure the services of a company, we give them our personal data based on trust that they’ll safeguard it well.
We certainly don’t expect that the info we give them will be uploaded onto the Internet.
Unfortunately for thousands of StarHub customers, that’s exactly what happened to them – their personal info was found on a data dump website.
The company has apologised and will offer support to affected customers.
Startling discovery made on 6 Jul
StarHub broke the news in a media statement on Friday (6 Aug), saying the discovery was made on 6 Jul.
The cybersecurity team was conducting proactive online surveillance when it found something startling on a 3rd-party data dump website.
It was an illegally uploaded file containing “limited types of personal information” related to individual customers.
Image for illustration purposes only
Source
File contains data of 57,191 customers
57,191 customers in total had their personal data leaked.
The file’s contents comprised identity card numbers, mobile numbers and email addresses, StarHub said.
However, the personal data appears to be about 14 years old.
That means none of the affected customers had subscribed to StarHub services from 2007 onwards.
The company also said that there’s no indication that any of the data has been maliciously misused at this time.
StarHub attempted to remove document
However, once they discovered the breach, StarHub attempted to remove the offending document from the data dump site.
They didn’t elaborate on whether that effort was successful.
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Source
The company also said they’d launched an investigation led by a team of leading digital forensic and cybersecurity experts.
Additionally, they reviewed their existing security measures to protect core infrastructure and systems.
StarHub CEO apologises, offers support
In the statement, StarHub chief executive Nikhil Eapen apologised for the concern that affected customers may be experiencing.
They’ve currently notifying customers who’ve been affected, and he said the company will provide support to them, adding,
We will be transparent and will keep our customers updated.
To help customers safeguard their identity and personal info, StarHub will also offer them 6 months complimentary credit monitoring service through Credit Bureau Singapore.
Customers may head to www.starhub.com/info-security to find out more about the breach.
SingTel revealed data hack in Feb
Unfortunately, this isn’t the 1st data breach discovered this year involving a local telecommunications company.
In Feb, SingTel said in a statement that a 3rd-party file-sharing system it used was hacked.
That led to customers’ personal information – names, addresses, phone numbers, identification numbers and dates of birth – being stolen by hackers.
In total, 129,000 SingTel customers were affected.
Hope safeguards will be strengthened
The data breaches experienced by 2 major Singapore telcos are unfortunate and will be of concern to most people in Singapore.
Given that almost everyone in Singapore has a phone and uses the Internet, that means few of us are safe from having our personal data exposed.
While we’re glad that StarHub and SingTel have been forthcoming over the leaks, we hope the necessary safeguards will be strengthened to prevent such breaches happening again.
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Featured image adapted from MS News and Mika Baumeister @ Unsplash. Photo for illustraion purposes only.
