User data posted on the dark web after massive telecom hack in Europe, should you worry?

*Image credit — Bloomberg

A massive hacking operation was recently conducted against Orange SA — a French telecom company — by a group calling itself Warlock. Four gigabytes of data has been posted on the dark web this month, while the attack itself took place back in July.

Orange had disclosed details about the attack to concerned authorities last month, before the data got leaked on the web. The company itself has confirmed that the data has been published online, but refused to comment on either the hacker group or any companies affected by the attack.



Orange has claimed (subscription required) that the information that was stolen is only “outdated or low-sensitivity” data, so users need not worry. The company also said that the hackers, who possibly wanted to demand ransomware, were only able to gain limited access to its systems.

This is far from the first time that Orange has been the victim of a data breach. The same month as this attack was taking place, the Belgian division of Orange was also hacked. In that incident, the user data of 850,000 individuals was stolen. Coupled with the Warlock attack, this is the fourth major hack conducted against Orange during just this year.



Telecom companies are, naturally, a very attractive target for hacker groups like Warlock. Customer data is valuable, and can make for a lucrative ransom opportunity. However, some telecom data breaches are carried out for a different purpose: geopolitical tensions.

For example, a short while back, a group of Chinese hackers called Salt Typhoon gained access to U.S. telecom companies. The group managed to access text and call logs that took place between government officials and other personnel connected to national security.

Some maintain that the Salt Typhoon attack was organized by the Chinese government against the U.S., a claim that the former has denied. T-Mobile also noticed suspicious activity in its network around that time, but was actually able to remove the threat before any data could be accessed illegally.

Recently, AT&T customers who had been affected by a prior data breach just began to receive their settlement checks. Such attacks will, unfortunately, likely continue for a very long time ahead.

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