iiNet, Australia's’ second largest internet service provider, has urged its more than 30,000 Westnet internet users to change their passwords after a hacker claimed to have gained access to the customer database and put them on sale.
According to a tweet posted by Cyber War News, the unknown hacker claimed to have hacked important details of the customers like passwords, email-addresses, telephone numbers etc.
He is now offering to ‘sell or trade’ Westnet's customer database.
However, he has not mentioned any rate for the information.
Matthew Toohey, chief information officer at iiNet, told Mashable Australia that the hack, which could be an unauthorized access to old customer information stored on a legacy Westnet system, was under investigation and had been reported to law enforcement agencies.
"iiNet takes the privacy and security of customer information extremely seriously," he said. "The 30,827 impacted customers are being contacted with a recommendation they change passwords associated with their accounts as this is the most effective way to ensure security. As a precaution, additional steps have been taken to increase the monitoring of impacted accounts."
The system is now offline.
