However, Irish customers of the mobile network have not been affected by the attack on the customer upgrade database, which is believed to have been carried out using compromised employee log-ins. Three boss, Dave Dyson, said in a statement that all affected customers were being contacted individually and that while personal information had been accessed, no financial information had been compromised. Three men were arrested after the data breach was revealed, over the alleged fraudulent use of the company’s phone upgrade system in an attempt to steal handsets. “On 17 November we were able to confirm that eight customers had been unlawfully upgraded to a new device by fraudsters who intended to intercept and sell on those devices. “In total, information from 133,827 customer accounts was obtained but no bank details, passwords, pin numbers, payment information or credit/debit card information are stored on the upgrade system in question. However, it did contain personal data such a names and addresses. This latest data breach follows a similar hack at Talk Talk where the details of more than 150,000 customers were stolen including the bank account details of around 15,000.
The Three UK mobile phone company admits that there has been a cyber-security breach involving the details of millions of customers.