Plagued with privateness scandals, the cellular phone firm denies hacker has delicate info
A hacker has allegedly stolen the worker knowledge of tons of of Verizon employees, together with names, emails, cellphone numbers, and company ID numbers, Motherboard reported on Thursday. The outlet verified the database’s legitimacy by calling a number of of the numbers included.
The hacker claimed to have obtained the info by posing as inside assist, satisfied an worker to allow distant entry, after which deployed a script that copied knowledge from the focused laptop.
“These staff are idiots and can help you connect with their PC beneath the guise that you’re from inside assist,” the hacker advised Motherboard after they initially made contact final week, describing how they stole the data. They’d additionally reached out to Verizon, asking for $250,000 to maintain the database’s contents secret.
“Please be happy to reply with a proposal to not leak you’re [sic] complete worker database,” they wrote.
Whereas the communications firm confirmed it had spoken with the person – whom they known as a “fraudster” reasonably than a hacker – Verizon claimed the individual had no “delicate info” and mentioned they’d not have interaction additional.
As a substitute, they praised their inside safety and insisted they’d “robust measures” in place to guard their individuals and techniques. Nonetheless, provided that not less than among the worker info is present, it nonetheless poses a hazard to prospects and employees alike from SIM swapping and social engineering assaults. Hackers may doubtlessly log in utilizing stolen credentials and pose as Verizon staff, convincing Verizon customers to show over their very own private info and spawning one other stage of fraud.
Verizon has been stricken by hackers on each the worker and buyer ends lately, with a plague of spoofed texts late final 12 months focusing on customers from their very own Verizon cellphone numbers with “phishing” hyperlinks. Customers of the corporate’s Seen service additionally reported being hacked in October, an issue Verizon initially insisted didn’t exist earlier than shifting to blaming prospects for reusing passwords they’d used elsewhere.
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As many as 14 million Verizon person information had been left unsecured on an Amazon server managed by Israeli firm Good Programs in 2017, together with logs of consumers who’d reached out to customer support, their cellular phone numbers and account PINs.
Verizon defended Good Programs, insisting the insecure storage was an accident and claiming the one entry to the delicate knowledge was by a researcher who introduced the safety breach to their consideration.
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