Hundreds of small businesses risk losing out in the run-up to Christmas after one of the UK’s biggest web hosting companies was targeted by computer hackers.
The hackers broke into a Fasthosts server last month, stealing the personal data of hundreds of clients, including addresses, bank details and passwords.
After advising customers to change their passwords, Fasthosts staff noticed that some customers who had not done so were experiencing further breaches, and automatically reset their passwords.
Although the new passwords are being forwarded via Royal Mail, web-based activities for the businesses affected are effectively halted until the letters arrive.
A spokesman for Fasthosts said the company had removed the weakness in its system which allowed the hackers to break in.
“We apologise to those customers affected for any inconvenience caused during the issuing of new passwords. Fasthosts is fully confident that, in completing all remaining password changes as described, this will prevent any future disruption or concern,” he said.
Sal Viveros, a security analyst from McAfee, added that the growing number of data thefts highlights the potential value this type of data could provide for criminals.
“This is not a small scale attack by any stretch of the imagination and there is potential for the thieves to have accessed everything on the database,” he said.
“Companies of all sizes need to take note and learn from these highly publicised mistakes and continue to prioritise their security procedures in order to maintain maximum data safely.”
© Crimson Business Ltd. 2007
