BigPond broadband passwords leaked - News

To print: Select File and then Print from your browser's menu

--------------------------------------------------------------
This story was printed from ZDNet Australia.
--------------------------------------------------------------

BigPond broadband passwords leaked

By Rachel Lebihan, ZDNet Australia
July 23, 2001
URL: http://www.zdnet.com.au/news/soa/BigPond-broadband-passwords-leaked/0,139023165,120248150,00.htm

Telstra BigPond broadband usernames and passwords have been breached, with at least sixty-nine being leaked over the weekend.

A group calling itself Oxyg3n posted the batch of BigPond usernames and passwords on the www.apcmag.com forum, and a number of other chat sites, late Friday evening. Telstra said it become aware of the violation on Saturday and immediately changed the passwords involved, cancelling the compromised accounts on Sunday.

"We don't know if they [breached accounts] were accessed by people yet," Telstra spokesperson Stuart Gray told ZDNet. And -at this stage we can't be certain that more passwords and usernames have been compromised," Gray admitted.

However, Telstra stringently denies that its BigPond database was hacked into.

-It's absolutely not true that Telstra's BigPond database has been hacked into," Gray said, adding that the security breach was the result of a trojan virus that infected the sixty nine computers.

-We don't understand the reason why this was done," Gray said, adding that is seemed to be some sort of publicity stunt.

Affected users would have found their accounts inaccessible after Telstra changed their passwords, and those who contacted the telco heavyweight have confirmed they had been infected by a trojan, according to Gray.

Customers had to delete the trojan and change password in order to gain control of their accounts.

-It's illegal for those usernames and passwords to be posted," Gray said.

-There will be a full investigation into the whole event...we will try and chase down the person who did it and take every action possible," Gray added.