A mayor data breach of Greece’s biggest telecommunications network company Cosmote took place last month. Millions of telephone calls were intercepted and data of millions of Greeks, including phone calls of the Prime Minister and government officials, were stolen newspaper To Vima disclosed.
According to newspaper information, the huge information leak was the result of a cyber attack by unknown “intruders” who recorded the data of tens of millions of phone calls and SMS in the period September 1-5, 2020.
The stolen data refer to the network of telephone calls from landlines and mobiles, caller’s data, mobile telephony antennas that covered the calls, etc.
According to tovima, the big question is the impact of the data breach to “national security issues.”
Cosmote executives reportedly noted that the electronic “raid” was from abroad and expressed the hope that this may have been done for “commercial” – advertising reasons, to vima wrote.
According to an announcement issued by Cosmote, an “unauthorized export of file from the company’s system with call details, without name, was detected by Cosmote during an inspection of its systems. The file export was the result of a cuber attack.”
This file contained data, without name, of the calls made or received by mobile subscribers on the five days from 5/9/2020 and specifically: telephone number, day and time of the call and its duration. In addition, device type, IMSI 1, age, gender, ARPU 2, base station coordinates and COSMOTE subscriber mobile program were displayed.
This data is used by the company to optimize the network and the services provided.
The file did not contain call (chat) or message content, names or addresses, nor passwords or credit card or bank account information.
According to the company announcement, no action is required on the part of the customers.
“The company immediately blocked access, took all necessary measures and informed the competent authorities from the first moment.”
The investigation of the incident is in progress and so far, there is no indication of publication or other use of the illegally obtained file.
The phenomenon of cyber attacks worldwide is a daily occurrence for all technology systems of companies, organizations and institutions. According to the company, its cybersecurity systems repel more than 500,000 malicious third-party attacks and denial of service (DDoS) attacks every month. source: tovima.gr
