Hackers may have stolen the data of up to 470,000 customers of water supplier Southern Water in the UK, the company has warned.
While investigations into exactly how many customers have been affected are still ongoing, Southern Water issued a statement saying they plan to notify “between 5 and 10 per cent” of their customers.
A BBC report said the stolen data included bank account details and customer reference numbers, national insurance numbers and dates of birth. Southern Water has not commented on exactly what data has been stolen.
Another data breach? Damn!
A statement from Southern Water spokesperson Simon Fluendy confirmed to TechCrunch that between 235,000 and 470,000 of its 4.7 million customer data had been stolen in the breach.
The company also plans to notify its 6,000 current employees and several former employees whose data may also have been stolen by the hackers.
While Southern Water has not commented on how its networks were breached, shortly after the incident a cyber gang known as Black Basta posted that they had stolen 750 gigabytes of the company's data and would release it if a ransom was not paid.
The gang also released images purportedly confirming their possession of the data which included sensitive information such as employee passports.
Southern Water has said it is working with experts to determine the extent of the damage and has notified the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) about the incident. The ICO and the National Cyber Security Center recently published a joint letter urging the public not to pay ransoms if their data is stolen.
