Freedom Mobile, Canada’s fourth largest mobile network operator, through a third-party service provider, exposed the details of many customers, including their payment card data.
vpnMentor reported on Tuesday that its researchers had identified an unprotected database storing information on Freedom Mobile customers, including email addresses, phone numbers, home addresses, dates of birth, IP addresses associated with payment methods, credit scores (from Equifax and other companies), unencrypted payment card data with CVV codes, locations and other customer service records, and account details.
vpnMentor claimed the unprotected database stored at least 5 million records associated with as many as 1.5 million users, which is roughly Freedom Mobile’s total number of customers.
However, Freedom Mobile, which is owned by Shaw Communications, said the number is inaccurate. Its investigation revealed that the database stored the details of only 15,000 customers who had opened or made any changes to their accounts at 17 Freedom Mobile retail locations between March 25 and April 16.
“Any reference to 1.5 million customers affected is inaccurate – the researchers could be referencing the number of lines of data exposed but it is certainly not a reference to the number of customers affected. If it is a reference to the number of lines of data, it’s worth noting that some customer records could have hundreds or thousands of lines of data, including substantial amounts that do not include any personal information,” a Freedom Mobile spokesperson told SecurityWeek.
“We are also seeing data from test accounts, which is to be expected given the new status of the vendor, and data from people who came to stores and applied for service but didn’t complete a transaction,” the company added.
Freedom Mobile blamed the incident on Apptium Technologies, a company recently contracted to help streamline its retail customer support processes.
The existence of the unprotected database was reported to the telecom firm on April 18 and the issue was addressed on April 23. The company said it took action after verifying the “legitimacy of the researchers’ emails.”
Freedom Mobile’s investigation, whose goal is to determine the full scope of the incident, is ongoing. The company claims to have notified the Office of the Privacy Commissioner of Canada (OPC).
vpnMentor recently also identified unprotected databases storing the details of customers of Chinese e-commerce company Gearbest and roughly 80 million households in the United States.
Related: Unprotected MongoDB Instance Exposes 800 Million Emails
Related: AWS S3 Buckets Exposed Millions of Facebook Records
Related: Dow Jones Watchlist Found Exposed to Open Internet
Eduard Kovacs (@EduardKovacs) is a contributing editor at SecurityWeek. He worked as a high school IT teacher for two years before starting a career in journalism as Softpedia’s security news reporter. Eduard holds a bachelor’s degree in industrial informatics and a master’s degree in computer techniques applied in electrical engineering.
More from Eduard Kovacs
- In Other News: AI Regulation, Layoffs, US Aerospace Attacks, Post-Quantum Encryption
- Evidence Suggests Ransomware Group Knew About MOVEit Zero-Day Since 2021
- Vulnerabilities in Honda eCommerce Platform Exposed Customer, Dealer Data
- Barracuda Urges Customers to Replace Hacked Email Security Appliances
- Google Patches Third Chrome Zero-Day of 2023
- ChatGPT Hallucinations Can Be Exploited to Distribute Malicious Code Packages
- AntChain, Intel Create New Privacy-Preserving Computing Platform for AI Training
- Several Major Organizations Confirm Being Impacted by MOVEit Attack
Latest News
- In Other News: AI Regulation, Layoffs, US Aerospace Attacks, Post-Quantum Encryption
- Blackpoint Raises $190 Million to Help MSPs Combat Cyber Threats
- Google Introduces SAIF, a Framework for Secure AI Development and Use
- ‘Asylum Ambuscade’ Group Hit Thousands in Cybercrime, Espionage Campaigns
- Evidence Suggests Ransomware Group Knew About MOVEit Zero-Day Since 2021
- SaaS Ransomware Attack Hit Sharepoint Online Without Using a Compromised Endpoint
- Google Cloud Now Offering $1 Million Cryptomining Protection
- Democrats and Republicans Are Skeptical of US Spying Practices, an AP-NORC Poll Finds
