A Czech court recently sentenced two hackers to three years in prison after they gained unauthorized access to Vodafone customers' mobile phone accounts and used them to purchase services from gambling sites, worth 600,000 Czech crowns. According to information, Vodafone wants those customers who fell victim to the attack to pay, as it appears they used the very easy password, “1234”.
According to information, the hackers gained access to the accounts using the aforementioned code. They then made a reservation for a new SIM card online, and collected the new SIM from different stores. Since they knew the number of each mobile phone and the password for each account, they were able to receive the SIMs without any additional confirmation of information. In this way, they managed to charge customers more than 600,000 Czech crowns, or approximately 24,000 euros.
Vodafone stated that those accounts that used such easy passwords must settle the debt.
The victims report that they have no idea how their Password was set to “1234” and that they had no idea there was an online market for purchasing services. Additionally, Vodafone stated that it is possible that an employee set such an easy password, even though each customer was supposed to change it to something more complex.
So far, the required length for the password for Vodafone accounts is not considered secure, as the minimum required length is 4 characters.
Vodafone's stance, however, is another reason that users must ensure they use strong and different passwords on every website they use.
