Cellphone and broadband provider Vodafone Deutschland says it was the target of a large-scale data theft affecting the personal details of 2 million German customers.
Spokesman Alexander Leinhos says the attack was conducted by an unidentified IT systems administrator who worked for a company contracted by Vodafone.
Vodafone said in a statement today that the stolen data included customers' names, addresses, date of birth and bank details.
Credit card information and passwords weren't stolen. Vodafone said it regretted the incident and warned its customers to be on guard against unsolicited phone calls or emails from people seeking to exploit the stolen data.
The company has more than 32 million cellphone customers and more than 3 million broadband subscribers in Germany. It is a wholly owned subsidiary of Vodafone Group Plc.
The European Commission is putting into place new rules on what exactly telecoms operators and Internet Service Providers (ISPs) should do if their customers' personal data is lost, stolen or otherwise compromised. The purpose of these "technical implementing measures" is to ensure all customers receive equivalent treatment across the EU in case of a data breach, and to ensure businesses can take a pan-EU approach to these problems if they operate in more than one country.
