European Central Bank victim of data breach

The European Central Bank (ECB) has revealed that there has been a breach on its website, with email addresses and other contact details stolen.

The bank wrote in a press release that a hacker accessed a database that served its website, which resulted in a breach of approximately 20,000 email addresses and other contact information, such as mailing addresses and telephone numbers. The personal information belonged to attendees of ECB events.

The bank was made aware of the breach when the hacker sent an email anonymously, demanding money for the data to be returned. Some of the data, which included phone numbers and street names, had not been encrypted.

The ECB said that all those who had had personal details breached would be contacted and that all system passwords had been reset.

The MD of security specialist firm Check Point, Keith Bird, feels that the breach was an indication that banks are losing an increasing amount of data to ambitious cyber criminals. He told SCMagazineUK.com:

“This attack highlights how even high profile organisations with robust defences, can fall victim to enterprising cyber-criminals.”

There have been a number of key breaches of late among high-profile companies, and SMEs would be wise to open up information security vacancies to ensure that they are in a position to defend themselves against any potential attacks. By making sure they encrypt their information and bringing in highly trained staff, they can send out a strong measure about their anti-cybercrime approach.