Partner Article

Wonga data breach hits 250,000 UK customers

It has been revealed that payday lender Wonga has suffered a data breach with around 250,000 UK customers affected. Reports claim that hackers accessed email addresses, phone numbers, bank account numbers and the last four digits of customers’ card details. The company identified the data breach last week and notified their customers on Friday.

“Companies like Wonga will always be a prime target for hackers, largely due to the scale and nature of their business,” said Ross Brewer, vice president and managing director EMEA at LogRhythm. “To Wonga’s credit, the company appears to have identified the breach and notified their customers relatively quickly, giving those affected the chance to look out for any unusual activity and minimise any subsequent damage.

Brewer continued: “What’s worrying about this breach, however, is not just the number of those breached, but also the type of data that is thought to have been taken. It’s become relatively common for hackers to get their hands on names, email addresses and phone numbers, but, in this case, bank details are also believed to have been stolen. For 250,000 people, this will be a big problem. Hackers use information they steal to build profiles of their victims so that they can access money or more confidential data; the more information they have, the easier it is. In the case of a phishing attack, for example, proving that they have a bank account number could be what convinces a target to share more confidential data.

“Breaches like this reinforce how crucial it is for companies to have full insight into the cyber attack lifecycle. Modern-day hackers are clever, patient and persistent, and it’s increasingly important that businesses have the knowledge and tools that allow them to recognise the signs of an attack straightaway. Indeed, having insight into each stage of an attack enables businesses to implement end-to-end threat management which reduces the time it takes to detect and respond to a threat, and subsequently avoid a large-scale data breach,” concluded Brewer.

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by LogRhythm .