Singapore based telecom company Singtel disclosed that personal data of about 1,29,000 customers was compromised after a recent data breach of a third-party file sharing system.
Singtel, an associate of Bharti Airtel, has completed initial investigations into the breach and established which files on the Accellion file transfer appliance (FTA) were accessed illegally, reported Channel News Asia on Wednesday, citing the company’s news release.
Singtel’s Group CEO Yuen Kuan Moon has apologised to customers for the data breach and assured that data privacy is paramount and support in mitigating the potential risks. The stolen personal information includes the customers’ National Registration Identity Card numbers and a combination of names, dates of birth, mobile numbers and addresses, the group said. In addition, bank account details of 28 former Singtel employees and credit card details of 45 staff members of a corporate customer with Singtel mobile lines were taken.
Damage Control
Singtel said a “large part” of the leaked data includes its “internal information that is non-sensitive such as data logs, test data, reports and emails”. Singtel added that Accellion FTA, which it used as a third-party file sharing system, was the target of a sophisticated cyberattack, exploiting a “previously unknown vulnerability”.
When it was first alerted to exploits against the system in December last year, Singtel “promptly applied” a series of patches provided by Accellion to “plug the vulnerability”, it said.
On January 23, Accellion advised that a new vulnerability had emerged that rendered the earlier patches applied in December ineffective. Singtel immediately took the system offline, and the FTA system has been kept offline since January 23, said the company.
“On January 30, Singtel’s attempt to patch the new vulnerability in the FTA system triggered an anomaly alert. Accellion informed thereafter that the system could have been breached,” it said.
The telecom’s investigations later confirmed the breach and identified January 20 as the date it had occurred. “On February 9, Singtel established that files were taken as a result of the breach and informed the public two days later on February 11,” said the company.
On Wednesday, Singtel said it was appointing a global data and information service provider to provide identity monitoring services at no cost to affected customers to help them “manage potential risks”. This service monitors public websites and “non-public places” on the Internet, and notifies users of any unusual activity related to their personal information.