Wonga Goes Bonga: Potential 270,000 Customer Data May Be Exposed

Wonga the payday loan company has suffered a data breach, that could have affected upto 270,000 customer’s personal data – these include names, addressed, phone numbers, and other financial information, including account numbers, sort codes and the last four digits of card number.

Professor Alan Woodward, a cyber security expert at the University of Surrey, This is “One of the biggest” breaches of financial information in the United Kingdom.

This breach if confirmed will be bigger and more extensive that Talk Talks’s 2015 data breach, which led to record fines for the company, from the Information Commissioner’s Office. The Talk Talk breach involved 157,000 people, but less than 16,000 of those involved any bank details being compromised.

Those Affected

Currently both current and former customers, for whom Wonga have records are affected. This could be up to 245,000 in the United Kingdom and may include a further 25,000 in Poland.

Other countries in which Wonga operates, South Africa, Spain and Germany, it is believed, have so far not been affected, by the breach.

The firm in a statement have said: “We are working closely with authorities and we are in the process of informing affected customers. We sincerely apologise for the inconvenience caused.”

Wonga further added “it did not believe the attackers had gained access to users’ loan accounts, but warned them to be vigilant.”

Wonga is a lender, which provides short-term loans, Wonga in said “It became aware of the breach on the 4th April, but at the time thought no data was involved”. The company, three days later began to realise the extent of breach and started emailing and texting its customers. It further has set up a Wonga Breach Help Page and phone line to assist it’s customers, who require more information.

At this time Wonga that the customer passwords are unaffected and that their accounts “Should be secure”, of course for those whose bank information, is compromised it is of little consequence.

At Cyenet Solutions, of course we understand the nature of the risks involved in the growing inter connected world. That is why regular penetration testing is a must, for further information contact us.