Iranian police confirm hacking and release of data of 20 million Irancell users
Iranian police have confirmed the hacking and release of information from 20 million Irancell subscribers and said they are looking for the perpetrator or perpetrators.
Colonel Hossein Ramezani, the deputy head of legal and international affairs for the FATA Police (Information Exchange Space), told Mehr News Agency today, July 2, “Recently, someone designed a bot on a mobile social network and published old information about subscribers of that operator [Irancell], and the legal department of the telephone operator immediately filed a lawsuit in the courts against the creator of the bot and the publisher of the information.”
Mr. Ramezani said, "There is currently no reason for concern, and from a technical and professional perspective, this operator has foreseen appropriate security to protect and respect the privacy of its users."
The Ministry of Communications and Information Technology has also announced the blocking of this bot.
The Tehran-based Etemad newspaper reported in today's issue that two days ago, "a Telegram bot was publicly publishing the private information of the number owner, such as name, last name, national code, city of residence, home address, and postal code, when entering Irancell numbers."
Officials from the Ministry of Communications have confirmed that the theft of information related to Irancell subscribers occurred two years ago, but the Etemad newspaper says that Irancell has been keeping the theft of this information secret for this period, which, according to the newspaper, “could pave the way for various frauds.”
According to Iranian media reports, Irancell has explained the hacking and disclosure of its subscribers' information as "subject to the completion of its information."
Source: BBC
