Verizon says security hole a mistake, but millions of customers’ data remains safe

Colin Fredericson
By Colin Fredericson
July 13, 2017US News
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Verizon says security hole a mistake, but millions of customers’ data remains safe
(Scott Olson/Getty Images)

 

A computer security company discovered that the data of millions of Verizon customers was freely accessible online, sitting unsecured on an Amazon cloud server. Anyone that could guess the url could access the data.

U.S.-based cybersecurity firm UpGuard notified Verizon of their findings. Verizon told UpGuard they entrusted the customer data to 3rd party vendor NICE systems, located in Israel. The company is used to log customer call data. The data exposed included names, phone numbers, and personal identification numbers used to speak with customer service.

Verizon’s official statement stated that “an employee of one of our vendors put information into a cloud storage area and incorrectly set the storage to allow external access.” The statement downplays the extent of the exposure, stating that only six million sets of customer data were exposed, rather than UpGuard’s count of 14 million. Verizon also says that no one unauthorized accessed the data except for UpGuard.

NICE serves 85 percent of Fortune 100 companies and has been involved in government surveillance operations for countries around the world.

Colin Fredericson for NTD Television

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