Data breach at Australian telco exposes personal info of over 230,000 customers

Melbourne-based Tangerine Telecom, an NBN and mobile service provider, suffered a data breach that exposed the PII of over 232,000 Australian customers earlier this month.

Tangerine Telecom disclosed earlier this month that the details of current and former customers were accessed by an unauthorized party using the compromised credentials of one of its contractors. The user’s credentials were subsequently revoked to prevent further compromise.

“It appears the unauthorised disclosure of certain personal information occurred on Sunday 18 February 2024 and was first reported to Tangerine management on Tuesday 20 February 2024,” the company said.

“We have taken precautionary steps to fully revoke network and systems access for the individual user’s credentials and we have also changed all other team usernames and passwords.”

No financial information or IDs exposed

The services provider emphasized that no credit or debit card numbers, driver’s license numbers and banking details were compromised. However, the unauthorized individual managed to get away with plenty of identifiable information to conduct targeted attacks against customers.

Exposed records were part of the company’s legacy customer database. They included full names of current and former customers from June 2019 to July 2023, date of birth, mobile phone numbers, email addresses, postal addresses, and Tangerine account numbers.

Tangerine also said that it had officially notified all impacted individuals on Fen. 21and that it is working closely with theAustralian Cyber Security Centre and other regulatory bodies while conducting a thorough investigation.

All customers are advised to scrutinize unsolicited correspondence, monitor online accounts for any suspicious activity, and remain vigilant against scams.

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