MONTREAL – Bell Canada said late Monday that an anonymous hacker had gained access to about 1.9 million customer email addresses, along with far fewer names and/or telephone numbers.
“There is no indication that any financial, password or other sensitive personal information was accessed,” the company said in a statement. This incident is not connected to the recent global WannaCry malware attacks either, the company added.
The illegally accessed information contains approximately 1.9 million active email addresses and approximately 1,700 names and active phone numbers. The statement did not say when the attack happened.
“We apologize to Bell customers for this situation and are contacting those affected directly,” reads the release.
Bell says it took immediate steps to secure affected systems and that it has been working closely with the RCMP cyber crime unit in its investigation and has informed the Office of the Privacy Commissioner.
“To learn more about how to protect your personal information, please visit Bell's security and fraud prevention resources on Bell.ca. Please note that Bell will never ask customers for credit card or other personal information by e-mail,” adds the release.
Bell said it continues to work together with government, law enforcement agencies and the technology industry to combat the growth of hacking and other cyber crimes. For more information about cyber crime prevention and how to protect your data, please visit the RCMP web site at www.Rcmp-grc.gc.ca and the federal government's cyber safety web site at www.Getcybersafe.gc.ca.
