Telephone data from thousands of customers leaked in Cosmote cyber attack
Greece’s telecoms operator Cosmote said the telephone data of thousands of Greek citizens have reportedly been stolen in a massive hacking operation that took place from September 1 to 5 through the OTE telecommunications network.
The attack took place through a third country, most likely from Lithuania, while the file concerns calls made through a cellular network and not a GSM network, on which the calls of the direct messaging applications are based, Kathimerini understands.
This file contained details of the calls made or received by mobile subscribers during those five days, specifically the phone number, the day and time of the call and its duration. Names were not included.
The least also included information on the device type, the International Mobile Subscriber Identity (IMSI), the age, gender, average revenue per user (ARPU), base station coordinates and mobile subscriber program.
“This data is used by the company to optimize the network and the services provided,” Cosmote said in a statement, announcing the incident on Thursday, after about 40 days.
The company said the delay in the announcement was necessary to allow the investigation to be carried out in secrecy.
