Free mobile data theft: clients in france warned to look out for scams

THE MOBILE PHONE PROVIDER WAS HIT BY A MAJOR CYBER ATTACK IN OCTOBER Clients of Free Mobile are advised to be on the lookout for scams after the company was hit by a major cyber attack in

October targeting the personal data of its users, however Free Mobile says that no passwords or bank details were taken. The attack was announced on X by self-proclaimed “friendly hacker”

SaxX on October 22, who warned that a cyber criminal was selling two databases on the dark web: one containing the details of 20 million Free customers, and another of 5 million IBAN

details. The personal details include customers’ names, phone numbers, postal addresses, birthdays and emails, SaxX said. Clients of Free were cautioned to change their passwords and look

out for potential scams. > 🚨🔴CYBERALERT, 🇫🇷FRANCE 🔴 | 19M de comptes et 5M > d'IBAN de l'opérateur téléphonique Free mis en vente sur le > "Amazon de la 

cybercriminalité" >  > Hier nuit, un cybercriminel a mis en vente deux bases de données > supposées appartenir à Free : > 👉 l'une comportant 19 192 948 de comptes… >

 pic.twitter.com/24lgxXsoWv > — SaxX ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ (@_SaxX_) October 22, 2024 NO PASSWORDS STOLEN In a statement to French media on October 26, Free Mobile acknowledged that it had been

hacked without confirming the extent. “No passwords”, “no bank cards”, “no communications content (emails, SMS, voicemails, etc.)” were affected by this attack”, the company told Agence

France-Presse.  “No operational impact has been observed on our activities or services. “The subscribers concerned have been or will be informed by email shortly”, announced the operator,

adding that “all the necessary measures were taken immediately to put an end to this attack and reinforce the protection of our information systems.” The company added that it had filed a

criminal complaint with the Public Prosecutor and informed the French data protection agencies, la Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés and the Agence Nationale de la

Sécurité des Systèmes d'Information. The cyber attack on Free, which targeted one of the service's software management tools, follows a similar attack on SFR in September.

Following that attack, SFR confirmed on September 19 that it had been subject to a “security incident involving a tool for managing customer orders” that resulted in the theft of customer

data, including bank details.