[LINK] Telstra data hacked again

[Jan Whitaker]

[I say Telstra data because it was a subset, not their main game, and 
was at a 3rd party service, presumably outsourced by Telstra. Goes to 
show that due diligence is critical when passing along trusted data 
to 3rd parties.]


Hackers hit Telstra site: 35,000 affected

Ben Grubb
May 24, 2012 - 9:44AM

Telstra has been hit by a "hacking attack" affecting 35,000 
customers, just a week after one of its IT staff 
<http://www.smh.com.au/it-pro/security-it/oops-inside-telstras-privacy-blunder-20120518-1yuua.html>told 
a security conference the telco was reviewing how it secured and 
stored customer information.

The hacking attack occurred on the servers of a third party company 
that runs Telstra BigPond's <http://www.gamearena.com.au/>GameArena 
and <http://www.gamearena.com.au/shop/games/>Games Shop websites, the 
telco said in a statement this morning.

It said information that may have been obtained "was limited to 
BigPond Games user names, the email address used to join the site and 
the encrypted GameArena and Games Shop passwords of up to 35,000 customers".

The 
<http://www.gamearena.com.au/news/read.php/5112945?latest=1>company 
had therefore reset the passwords of users of those sites "as a 
precaution" despite them being encrypted. "We will contact affected 
customers, with their new password, as soon as possible," it said.

Telstra encouraged customers affected by the breach to change their 
password if they used the same one at other sites.

The hacking attack comes after Telstra 
<http://www.smh.com.au/technology/technology-news/angry-customers-still-on-hold-over-telstra-privacy-breach-20111231-1pg5s.html>exposed 
about 800,000 customer records in December by not securing an 
internal tool used for looking up customer information.

The December breach was described by Scott McIntyre, Telstra's 
security operations senior technology architecture specialist, as 
being a "wonderful learning experience" for the telco in how it 
secures customer data.

This story was found at: 
http://www.theage.com.au/it-pro/security-it/hackers-hit-telstra-site-35000-affected-20120524-1z69h.html 




Melbourne, Victoria, Australia
jwhit at janwhitaker.com
blog: http://janwhitaker.com/jansblog/
business: http://www.janwhitaker.com

Our truest response to the irrationality of the world is to paint or 
sing or write, for only in such response do we find truth.
~Madeline L'Engle, writer

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