Odido, a prominent Dutch telecommunications provider, has disclosed that a significant data breach has compromised the personal information of millions of its customers.
In a statement released on Thursday, the company revealed that hackers, whose identities remain unknown, infiltrated its customer contact system and illicitly accessed a vast amount of customer data. A representative from Odido informed local media that over 6.2 million customers, which represents roughly one-third of the Dutch population, have been affected by this incident.
The compromised data encompasses customer names, phone numbers, email and postal addresses, dates of birth, bank account details (IBAN), as well as information from government-issued IDs, including passport and driver's license numbers along with their validity periods.
Furthermore, Odido indicated that previous customers who utilized their services within the last two years may also be impacted by this breach.
However, the company assured that the data breach did not involve customer call records, location information, billing details, or scanned images of government IDs. Business customers are also not affected by this incident.
This breach impacts both Odido and its subsidiary, Ben NL. Nevertheless, both companies confirmed that their phone, internet, and television services remain unaffected by this security incident.
This event marks the latest in a series of data breaches that have targeted major telecommunications firms in recent years, as both governmental entities and financially motivated hackers continue to pursue sensitive information held by these companies.
Earlier this week, the Singaporean government acknowledged that a hacking group linked to China had previously breached four major telecommunications companies in the country as part of a surveillance effort, although no personal customer data was compromised in that instance.
In the broader context, hackers associated with the China-backed group known as Salt Typhoon have infiltrated numerous telecommunications companies globally, including those in Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as part of an ongoing espionage campaign targeting senior officials and diplomats.