Virgin Media Community

[John_Hepburn]

Odd thing its come into an account not associated with my Virgin account

Is this for real?

Hello,

We are very sorry to have to inform you that we recently became aware that some of your personal information, stored on one of our databases has been accessed without permission. Our investigation is ongoing but we currently understand that the database was accessible from at least 19 April 2019 and that the information has been recently accessed. To reassure you, the database did NOT include any of your passwords or financial details, such as bank account number or credit card information. The database was used to manage information about our existing and potential customers in relation to some of our marketing activities. This included: contact details (such as name, home and email address and phone numbers), technical and product information, including any requests you may have made to us using forms on our website. In a very small number of cases, it included date of birth. Please note that this is all of the types of information in the database, but not all of this information may have related to you. We take our responsibility to protect your personal information seriously. We know what happened, why it happened and as soon as we became aware we immediately shut down access to the database and launched a full independent forensic investigation. We have also informed the Information Commissioner’s Office.

[GazCBG]

We got this email to but not sure who it to the account holder (my mother) or me.
But it not to the normal email address which is an @ntlworld.com and to a personal domain name I use for email.
It also doesn't appera to be on the main account either.

As it a standard email, I am not sure what it for.
The only thing I can think is maybe some competition VM was running or free content for Destiny (I think)

[John_Hepburn]

Appears to come from email@em.virginmedia.com but has been sent to my apple mac email address ?!?! not my ntlworld.com account

links to > https://em.virginmedia.com/2/4/1762/4/4kZLASqEoQXlosguZYRi3SmD7Vdl1fBzWLYXpeR8vcCPt8ENtk-WMnOIjQ3oz2...

Titled:  Important update regarding your personal information

[Graham_A · Accepted solution]

Looks to be genuine.  See this post at the head of the Security Forum:

https://community.virginmedia.com/t5/News/Virgin-Media-s-data-incident-Help-and-Advice/ba-p/4166258

[griffgod]

We've just received an email from email@em.virginmedia.com, apparently saying some personal data information had stolen. Sounds like spam, anyone else had this from same email address?

[GazCBG]

@Graham_A thanks for the link.

But I do have a question, on the page it says Has VM been hacked? The answer was No.
So where did the leak come from inside VM or did VM leave the DB unprotected somewhere like a AWS bucket

[weeonaa]

Yes I just got one of these sent to me this evening too!

Looks dodgy though (hence the search of the email address & stumbling across this!)

[elvedhel]

We are very sorry to have to inform you that we recently became aware that some of your personal information, stored on one of our databases has been accessed without permission. Our investigation is ongoing but we currently understand that the database was accessible from at least 19 April 2019 and that the information has been recently accessed.

To reassure you, the database did NOT include any of your passwords or financial details, such as bank account number or credit card information.

The database was used to manage information about our existing and potential customers in relation to some of our marketing activities. This included: contact details (such as name, home and email address and phone numbers), technical and product information, including any requests you may have made to us using forms on our website. In a very small number of cases, it included date of birth. Please note that this is all of the types of information in the database, but not all of this information may have related to you.

We take our responsibility to protect your personal information seriously. We know what happened, why it happened and as soon as we became aware we immediately shut down access to the database and launched a full independent forensic investigation. We have also informed the Information Commissioner’s Office.

Given the nature of the information involved, there is a risk you might be targeted for phishing attempts, fraud or nuisance marketing communications. We understand that you will be concerned so we are writing to everybody affected to provide reassurance, guidance and support. We have put all of the latest information on our website https://www.virginmedia.com/help/data-incident, including some advice on how to stay safe online,   etc etc etc . no point posting the whole email... 

The point is will VM be compensating those for breach of GDPR and personal data.. its bad enough that VM email serves got hacked when they switched and since then email is unuasble as VM keep blocking it and accusing customers of sending spam email and now this.. and VM wonders where all those spam emails come from... 

and VMs advice.. make sure your passwords are strong... whats the use of that when its VM themselves getting hacked.. maybe they need to update there own damn password.

EVERY user affected by this deserves a compensation from VM for this clear breach of data protection and not some sorry excuse for an apology email.

[John_Hepburn]

Ta Graham

Ouch if someone has been poking around since 19 April 2019 

Still odd that virgin emailed me the alert using an email address they don't have of mine!

Wonder if its related to the recent Tesco Clubcard and Boots Advantage Card cyber attacks

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-51742079

[shanematthews]

The email says it was a marketing DB, so doubtful it was hosted anywhere significant