Unsecured Database Links Virgin Media Customers to Porn

A customer database left unsecured, links some Virgin Media customers to explicit websites, including pornography sites.

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Virgin Media revealed on Thursday that a “marketing database” was out in the open for all to see on the Internet, with the contents being information and details on 900,000 people. They later confirmed on Friday that it features details of around 1,100 customers who had asked for a particular website to be blocked or unblocked.

The initial warning that the UK telecom company sent out on Thursday was that the database in question contained important personal information such as phone numbers, home addresses and emails.

“Stating to their customers that there was only a breach of ‘limited contact information’ is from our perspective understating the matter potentially to the point of being disingenuous,” a researcher at cyber-security film TurgenSec, which discovered the unsecured database, told BBC.

The TurgenSec researchers followed up by saying that details like the ones in the database could be used by cyber-criminals to extort money from victims, as well as that Virgin Media’s security was way below the level it actually needed to be at, saying that the information was “in plain text and unencrypted,” meaning that anyone “could clearly view and potentially download all of this data.”

The telecom company said that the affected were almost entirely Virgin customers with television or fixed-line telephone accounts, and that all affected individuals were properly informed in regards to contacting the company for support.

Virgin Media also said they have informed the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) of the data breach, as procedure entails, and will be emailing all affected by the breach to warn them about phishing, nuisance calls and identity theft, among other cyber-crimes.