Data breach at British provider Three leads to burglaries and scam attempts

A data breach at British provider Three has led to scams and attempted break-ins in telecom shops, among other things. Malicious persons could freely use an employee’s login to adjust subscriptions.

Police have arrested three suspects in the case, British newspaper The Telegraph reports. According to the newspaper, the attackers had access to the subscription upgrade system of Three customers through an employee’s login details. How they got there is unknown. Three has nine million customers, of which six million are subscribers. The Telegraph reports that the criminals had access to the name and address details of six million people.

Presumably, the criminals were able to renew their subscriptions and order devices without the intervention of the subscribers. The Telegraph reports that phones have been stolen in phone store break-ins and a spokesperson for Three admits they tried to intercept the devices. In addition, the malicious parties used the data to conduct scams. Due to the increased number of scam attempts, the provider discovered the fraud.

If the criminals only had access to the subscription system, they couldn’t access bank or credit card details. The data breach comes some time after a hack at another British provider, TalkTalk. A 17-year-old boy recently confessed that he wanted to impress friends with the hack.