A BreachForums user under the alias IntelBroker\ \ claims to have posted the customer data of Verizon Communications on the forum.\ \ The threat actor has claimed to have access to a database of 7.5 million Verizon\ \ customer records. Verizon has verified the data on the request from The Cyber Express.
\\\ n\\nAccording to their initial review of this matter, the data appears\ \ to be obtained approximately two weeks ago when a Verizon vendor experienced a security\ \ breach, Verizon spokesperson Richard Young told The Cyber Express.
\\\ n“This vendor creates videos for Verizon to assist customers with billing-related\ \ questions. The vendor had access to customer first names, device types, and service\ \ plans. The vendor did not have access to Social Security numbers, credit card numbers, or other personally\ \ identifiable customer information,” Young said.
\\nWe have severed this vendor’s\ \ access to our systems and suspended use of their services. Our review of this\ \ matter continues.”
Commonly known as Verizon, the American\ \ multinational telecommunications conglomerate is a corporate component of the Dow\ \ Jones Industrial Average. According to Statista, Verizon has a retail customer\ \ base of approximately 143 million subscribers in 2021.
\\n“In January 2023,\ \ a database of 7.5 million customers belonging to the Verizon was stolen by hackers,”\ \ claimed the post by IntelBroker. A sample of the hashed data posted indicates mobile and online subscription details.
\\nThe\ \ post, made on Friday, had the link to download the entire data tranche. IntelBroker’s\ \ present avatar has been active on the forum since October 2022. Its previous targets\ \ include Autotrader, Volvo, Hilton Hotels, and AT&T.
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Verizon and data breaches
\\nIndependent researchers\ \ were analysing the sample data at the time of publishing this report. If the tranche turns out to be\ \ authentic, this would be the company’s second major data breach in the past 12 months.
\\nVerizon in May 2022 confirmed a\ \ data breach where the full names, email addresses, corporate ID numbers, and phone\ \ numbers of Verizon employees were compromised. According to a report from Motherboard, the data was shared with the\ \ publication by the hacker who reached out to them.
\\nThe company popped up\ \ in cybersecurity news over a data\ \ breach five years before that.
\\nIn 2017, the telecommunication company
The data, which included customer phone numbers, names, and some PIN codes, was publicly available online due\ \ to a mistake made by NICE Systems, an Israel-based company that Verizon was working\ \ with to facilitate customer service calls.
\\nThe data of telecommunication users was collected over a period of six months,\ \ and Verizon closed the security hole on June 22.
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