Personal information of 100,000 customers of Bell have been pirated

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QMI agency

Tuesday, 23 January 2018 13:55

UPDATE
Tuesday, 23 January 2018 13:55

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Hackers have managed to steal the personal data of customers of Bell Canada, has confirmed on Tuesday the telecom giant.

According to what was stated by the company, the authors of the hacking managed to steal the name and the email address of customers. Phone numbers, user names of accounts and account numbers have also been stolen.

According to the Globe and Mail, up to 100,000 customers have been affected by piracy.

“There is no indication that data related to a credit card or other banking information have been consulted “, stated, however, Vanessa Damha, senior manager of media relations for Bell Canada, in an e-mail to QMI Agency.

“We apologize to our customers and we communicate with all the people involved. The RCMP is conducting an active investigation on the incident, and Bell has advised the concerned government agencies, including the Office of the protection of the private life, ” added the spokesperson.

A spokesman for the royal Canadian mounted police (RCMP), Stéphanie Dumoulin, confirmed that the federal police is currently investigating this case.

In a note, sent by e-mail to the victims, the vice-president responsible for the client experience at Bell, John Watson, has apologised and has asked affected customers to change passwords regularly.

Bell Canada indicated that additional security measures had been added to the accounts potentially hacked.

The information stolen by hackers could be used to attempt to hack into other accounts held by the victims. E-mail addresses could also be used to send fraudulent messages.

This is not the first time that Bell is the victim of a theft of massive data. In the spring of last year, a hacker had stolen approximately 1.9 million e-mail addresses and 1700 names and telephone numbers of assets.