by Ryan D. Jaeger
A claim by a mystery Australian who says that he managed to access
Ladbrokes' customer database, has led to an investigation by the UK's
Information Commissioner's Office.
The man approached the Mail newspaper and offered to sell them the
confidential details of the 4.5 million customers on
bookie Ladbrokes' data base.
The man, calling himself Daniel, claimed to have worked as a computer
security consultant for Ladbrokes several years ago.
To show that he genuinely had the information, the Australian gave the Mail
access to the details of 10,000 customers, including their home addresses, birth
dates, gambling histories and phone numbers.
Ladbrokes was immediately informed of the security breach and the police was
called in to examine the crime.
The Information Commissioner's Office, the UK data watchdog, is also
investigating
Ladbrokes also took immediate action to inform all its customers that their
financial details were safe, including their credit card details and passwords,
as these were not found on the customer data base offered to the Mail.
"We have been informed that a person connected to our organization has
offered certain details from a customer database to the Mail on Sunday," said
the Head of Public Relations at Ladbrokes, Ciaran O'Brien.
"This is a criminal act and we are working with the police, the ICO and the
newspaper to identify and apprehend he culprit. We are in the process of
contacting customers to apologize for this breach in security and to reassure
them that everything is being done to protect their personal information," she
added.
