iiNet has become the latest company to suffer a data breach. Hackers managed to steal email addresses and phone numbers for more than 280,000 iiNet customers.
iiNet says the incident occurred on Saturday August 16 and that it has acted quickly to shut down the unauthorised access of its system.
It has also engaged external IT and cyber security experts to survey the damage and find out the full scope of the data that was stolen.
The company is contacting customers to offer more details and support and to apologise for the unauthorised incident.
It says the access appears to be limited to the iiNet internal ordering system which is used to create and track orders for services including NBN connections.
But the company says there were no financial information or credit or banking details that have been compromised.
iiNet also confirmed drivers licence numbers, ID documentation details and bank account details are also safe.
“We unreservedly apologise to the iiNet customers impacted by this incident,” said TPG Telecom chief executive officer, Inaki Berroeta.
“We are continuing our investigations to ensure we understand all details surrounding this incident.
“We will begin contacting customers to make them aware of the incident, apologise and provide details on the support available.”
iiNet says the investigation is continuing with the main data lost being email addresses and phone numbers for more than 280,000 active customers, around 20,000 active iiNet landline phone numbers and a number of inactive email addresses and numbers.
On top of this it appears there are around 10,000 iiNet usernames, street addresses and phone numbers and 1,700 modem set-up passwords that also appear to have been accessed.
iiNet is contacting impacted customers to advise of any actions they need to take as well as offering assistance.
Customers have been urged to remain vigilant and be on the lookout for any suspicious communications received via email text or phone.
iiNet has set up a dedicated hotline – 1300 861 036 – so customers can contact them if they have any concerns.
There is also a dedicated information page on the iiNet website which will keep customers up to date with any developments.
