Vodafone Falls Prey To Cyber Attack

The telecom Vodafone was hit with a cyber attack that disturbed net traffic for a few hours yesterday afternoon.

RÚV reports that many Vodafone internet customers experienced slowed and stopped traffic due to a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack. The telecom announced on their home page that their core servers were safe from the cyber attack, as they are not connected to the servers being affected. By 18:00 that day, internet service was back to normal.

It was not revealed who was behind the DDoS, or even if the attacker is known. Vodafone has though been a target for attacks on a few occasions in the past.

In 2012, hacker Over-X launched a simple hack-and-deface attack against the site. In 2013, a more sophisticated hack penetrated Vodafone servers, and the hackers subsequently dumped a large volume of sensitive information, including the names, phone numbers, and personal text messages of many Vodafone customers.

The storing of this data by Vodafone was considered a violation of the law by the Data Protection Authority the following year, who contended that storing texts is against Icelandic law regarding privacy protection and the treatment of personal information.