Text messages of Icelandic MPs and ministers are now accessible online, as well as texts, passwords and other personal data of over 70,000 Vodafone customers after a cracker attacked Vodafone’s website.
Vodafone.is had to close down in the middle of the night after a Turkish hacker group broke into the site, RÚV reports.
At first, Vodafone’s PR claimed that no confidential information had been attained in the break-in but after RÚV reporters had found the information online, Vodafone sent out an updated statement, saying the company is working with the best data- and net security specialists available to investigate the scope of the incident.
Meanwhile, anyone can read thousands of text messages from around 77,000 Vodafone customers, including MPs. It seems they’re messages from three random days in the last three years, but not all messages sent.
RÚV reporters have looked up messages sent by Icelandic MPs and discovered for instance that one of them sent to another: “Perhaps you should protest to Jóka or SJS” but “Jóka” is a well known nickname given to former prime minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir and SJS are the initials of former minister of finance, Steingrímur J. Sigfússon.
In another message, one MP said to another from the same party: “We’re going to a secret meeting with LÍÚ [The Federation of Icelandic Fishing Vessel Owners] tell you about it later.”
Without disclosing who any of these MPs are, RÚV also points out that in February 2012 an MP had texted his fellow party MPs , explaining why he had refused to come on TV show Kastljós to discuss the constitution case (voted on in a referendum in October that year) and urged the others to do the same.
It’s therefore obvious that amongst the thousands of texts leaked to the internet, some of the information is highly sensitive. And anyone can read them, if you know someone’s Vodafone number, you can simply look them up.
According to Vísir.is Vodafone in Iceland now urges those who have accounts on their website to change their passwords, especially if they use the same password for other online accounts.
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