Vodafone says security breach a "one-off"

Vodafone has confirmed it believes its secure customer database has been breached by an employee or dealer who has shared the access password, revealing the personal details of millions of customers.

Vodafone chief executive, Nigel Dews, says he became aware the password to the online portal had been shared when the company was tipped-off on Saturday by a newspaper reporter.

He says an internal investigation is underway to work out who breached the system and how.

Passwords will also be reset.

Mr Dews says a full report will be delivered to him on Monday, but at this stage, he does not believe it is a widespread problem.

"It appears to have been a one-off incident, but we are investigating that thoroughly now and we will have a much better picture of that in the next 24 to 48 hours," he said.

"We take this data security issue very seriously.

"It's very important that we uphold the highest standards of data integrity for our customers."

Mr Dews says he is not concerned about the future of the brand despite the company also facing a class action over reception and service issues.

"As long as we look after our customers' data, our brand will certainly recover from this," he said.

"I'm not concerned about the brand at the moment, I'm mostly concerned about making sure our customers' records are safe.

"And that's why we're resetting those passwords every 24 hours.

"We want to make sure that our customers can feel as safe and secure while they're on Vodafone."

According to Fairfax newspapers, criminal groups are paying for the private information of some customers including home addresses and credit card details.

Others have also obtained logins to check their spouses' communications.

The details are reportedly accessible from any computer because they are kept on an internet site rather than Vodafone's internal system.

Mobile phone dealers have also admitted that anyone with full access to the system can look up a customer's bills and make changes to accounts.

Submitted by: stealth- korg