Crafty French hackers tweak 'My Account' page, slurp 800,000 Orange users' details

C'est magnifique, mais ce n'est pas la sécurité

Juicy personal data belonging to 800,000 Orange customers in France was siphoned off by hackers who attacked the company's "My Account" section of its website.

The webpage on Orange.fr is used by subscribers to manage their accounts with the former French monopoly mobile operator.

Orange confirmed to The Register that the company had been hacked last month.

It said in a statement:

Orange was the target of a hacking attack on January 16th, 2014, where attackers accessed data from the 'My Account' section of Orange.fr. These attackers accessed personal data from 3 per cent of Orange customers in France, but the 'My Account' page was closed as soon as the attack was detected and technical measures were immediately taken to stop the attack.

The telco has already told customers whose data were stolen - but said that no further action was required from subscribers. The hackers accessed personal information including name, mailing address, email and telephone numbers, Orange said.

It added that the malefactors also nicked Orange account IDs, but claimed that they were "not usable because certain numbers were masked / truncated."

The password of the customers were not accessed and cannot be used. Theft of this type of data mainly serve to feed ‘phishing’ activities, and we ask our customer to remain vigilant and to never provide personal data over email or click on links in email that may be untrustworthy.

We sincerely regret this incident. More than ever, the security of our customers’ data is a priority, and Orange is committed to protecting the data and privacy of our customers.

Orange told El Reg that the hack attack only affected its French customers. The customer data it holds throughout the rest of the globe was not breached, apparently. ®