The data was stolen from Cable & Wireless in December 2005
by a third party which the company believes it can identify.
Bulldog's customer base has since been sold to broadband provider
Pipex, but C&W is investigating the breach.
James Brown, managing director of Bulldog Internet, told the
Guardian newspaper: "Our understanding is that, following an
external enquiry by Cable & Wireless, it has become apparent
that at some point in December 2005 Cable & Wireless had some
of their customer contact details illegally obtained by a third
party. This resulted in a small number of their customers receiving
unsolicited calls."
C&W said that it was preparing legal action against a third
party which it said could be the source of the leak.
It is not yet clear exactly what customer data was taken.
Several customers have reported receiving telephone calls that
alerted them to the security breach. It is not known whether or not
credit card or bank details were among those taken. C&W said
that there was no evidence that that was the case.
Large scale data thefts are becoming increasingly common as
identity theft becomes a more lucrative crime. With individuals
carrying out more and more of their economic activity online,
impersonating those people can bring ever greater rewards.
The US has been the location of the most serious data breaches.
One recent US breach had implications for UK citizens, though. The
owners of High Street discount clothes chain TK Maxx suffered one
of the biggest ever breaches when the credit card details of 45
million customers were stolen by a hacker.
In a regulatory filing last month the shop's parent company, TJX
Companies, said that data had been stolen in the UK. "We believe
that information was stolen in the computer intrusion from … a
portion of our computer systems in Watford, U.K. that processes and
stores information related to payment card transactions at T.K.
Maxx in the United Kingdom and Ireland," said the filing.
