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Demon splurges details of 3,600 customers in billing email

Passwords too

Demon Internet sent thousands of business and government subscribers an email this morning telling them all about a new e-billing system, and tacked on details, including passwords, for 3,600 customers.

The email - supposedly from Simon Blackburn Demon's director of customer service - has been sent to customers opting for e-billing. It includes a guide to the new service along with user names and passwords.

But the email also has a .csv attachment with 3,681 customer records on it. Entries include names, emails, telephone numbers and what looks very like a user name and password.

There are records for New Scotland Yard and other police forces, Alder Hey Children's Hospital and local councils.

The email advises that customers requiring technical help are advised to contact Microgen.

An optimistic Reg reader said: "Someone needs a criminal record (might not be Demon, might be Microgen - see text of email), either way this lapse needs to be chastised in Court."

Given this country's toothless data protection laws, we can be fairly certain that won't happen. But an apology or warning to Demon users to get their passwords changed would be nice.

A spokeswoman for Demon said the company had changed the passwords which were sent out and was in the process of changing user names too. She said there was no evidence of anyone logging-in using someone else's details. The ISP will also be emailing customers whose details have been released.

Demon sent us the following statement:

As a result of human error, customer Information for a limited number of customers who had signed up to Demon’s new paperless billing platform has been circulated as an attachment to an email. To be clear, this information DID NOT contain any financial or payment information (bank details, credits card numbers etc)

On discovery, Demon took immediate steps to secure the information /details and security of customers affected by changing all affected customer usernames and passwords.

We would like to apologise to all concerned but state that this was a limited and isolated case caused by human error and to reassure customers that their security is our key priority and in light of this lapse, we will review all processes and procedures to ensure that it won’t be repeated.

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