26,500 National
Lottery accounts accessed by cybercriminals
Around 26,500
National Lottery players in the UK have had their online accounts accessed by
cybercriminals, operator Camelot has revealed.
The operator
was first alerted to a security incident on November 28th, during routine online security monitoring.
Camelot
believes that its own systems were not compromised, stating that it is of the
opinion that usernames and passwords had been stolen elsewhere.
“We do not
hold full debit card or bank account details in National Lottery players’
online accounts and no money has been taken or deposited,” it added.
“However, we
do believe that this attack may have resulted in some of the personal
information that the affected players hold in their online account being
accessed.”
Camelot has
since suspended victim’s accounts, along with initiating a compulsory password
reset.
Those
affected have been alerted through an email. One player, Nigel McKee took to Twitter
to ask National Lottery if the email was genuine, which was later confirmed by
the company.
The email
stated: “We regret to inform you that your account has been subject to an
unauthorized login.
“However,
please be assured that we don’t hold full bank account details.. and no money
has been deposited or withdrawn from your account”.
Other players
reacted in anger on Twitter after being alerted of their accounts being
compromised, with one user, Richard C writing:
“My account has been potentially breached. Not good at all.”
The
Information Commissioner’s Office in the UK released a statement confirming that they are investigating the incident
after being alerted by Camelot:
“We are aware
of this incident and we have launched an investigation,” a spokesperson
commented.
“The Data
Protection Act requires organizations to do all they can to keep personal data
secure – that includes protecting it from cyberattacks. Where we find this has
not happened, we can take action.”
It added that
it is seeking to talk to Camelot about the incident, to establish the facts
around this data breach.
“We’d like to
reassure our customers that protecting their personal data is of the utmost
importance to us,” Camelot said.