The Poznań magistrate informed on Tuesday about a security breach at the SMS service provider. The entity servicing the city confirmed that as a result of a hacker attack, a fragment of the archival database of SMS messages to customers was accessed.
The city reported that as a result of the event that took place on April 19, unauthorized persons gained access to telephone numbers and the content of messages from the Poznań City Hall.
“Your phone number has been accessed”
The inhabitants of Poznań received information about data theft via text messages. “As a result of the described event, access to your phone number and the content of the messages from the Poznań City Hall was obtained. We would like to inform you that the messages did not contain your other data” – we read in the communiqué of the office to which the residents were referred.
It is about sending SMS to the numbers indicated by customers, e.g. in connection with booking visits to the office or notification of the receipt of documents.
“We have received assurance from our contractor that the vulnerability in the system used to carry out the attack has been identified and removed, and your data is safe. A number of preventive measures have been implemented to prevent the occurrence of a similar event in the future. The platform is constantly monitored for any suspicious activity,” the city said. in the message.
On Tuesday, the managing director of SukcesSMS, Daniel Zawiliński, confirmed that on Wednesday, April 19, a security incident occurred in the system involving unauthorized access to part of business customers’ data.
– Despite the quick interruption of the hacking attack, access to some of our customers’ archived data was possible for a short time, including the SMS messages sent (telephone number and SMS content). The vulnerability in the system used to carry out the attack has been identified and removed, said Daniel Zawiliński.
The prosecutor’s office was notified
As he assured, as a result of the attack, no access to customer accounts was found.
– We informed the relevant services about the incident, in particular the prosecutor’s office, the Central Office for Combating Cybercrime and the Office for Personal Data Protection. Our security department identified the details of the data involved in the incident and immediately made this information available to affected customers. Due to the ongoing activities of the services, we cannot provide further details of the incident at the moment, he said.
City: watch out for suspicious calls
The city appealed for vigilance regarding unexpected messages, especially calls from unknown senders.
“We recommend that you carefully analyze messages contained in SMS messages and calls that may be an attempt to obtain more data. We also recommend caution when opening links or attachments from suspicious messages,” the city said.
Main photo source: TVN24