Vodafone in Australia admits the hack of Fairfax journalist

It has been accepted by Vodafone Australia that one of its employees hacked the phone records of Fairfax journalist Natalie O’Brien in 2011. The company has however refused to accept the fact that the company itself was involved in the breach and that it was done by one of the Vodafone employees in Australia.

The information of the journalist O’Brien was accessed after she reported that the Siebel data system of Vodafone was unsafe and the information of the subscribers such as their passwords, login credentials and credit card information were unsafe and can be easily accessed by anyone in the company.

She also reported that such information can also be easily sold to those who can then misuse such sensitive information. O’Brien reported the vulnerability in the system of Vodafone on the basis of the information she received from an insider. The whistle-blower who gave the information to the journalist for her report was allegedly working with the company at the time of the publication of the report.

In order to identify who gave her the information that was given to her, one of the company employees accessed the phone records including call records and messages of the journalist in an attempt to trace the identity of the person who could have been the insider who gave the information to the journalist. The report from Natalie O’Brien also stated that the Siebel passwords used in the company were generic in nature and were used by multiple users. This resulted in a threat to the security of data as it could be accessed by anyone by using the password that can be accessed by anyone.

The access to the phone details of the journalist has revealed the malpractices that exist in several 

large companies.