The pay TV provider Sky was recently the victim of a cyber attack, but is very cautious about information. The hackers were apparently targeting customer data.
Various Sky customer accounts are apparently affected by a hacker attack. When exactly the cyber attack on Sky occurred is not entirely clear. The company has not yet issued an official press release and there is no corresponding reference on the homepage. At the moment, the affected Sky customers are being informed step by step. As far as we know, Wow subscribers don’t seem to be affected.
Sky informs customers via email about cyber attack
Apparently only a limited number of customer accounts are affected by the hacker attack. Sky “immediately took IT security measures and stopped unauthorized access. Furthermore, we have launched an investigation, informed the relevant data protection authorities and contacted the potentially affected customers as soon as possible with the relevant information and instructions.”
Some do that too forum entries close, in which users report such e-mails. In the messages to affected Sky customers, they are informed that cybercriminals have probably gained “temporary access” to the customer account. In fact, the broadcaster is otherwise rather covered when it comes to the hacker attack. The sparse communication about the incident also annoys some Sky customers, who complain accordingly in the forum.
Which data is affected and what can be done
In the cyber attack on Sky, the hackers were primarily concerned with customer data. Paid packages were also booked for some of those affected. In the forum, Sky itself writes:
Our investigation is still ongoing, but based on what we have learned so far, the cybercriminals may have temporarily accessed personal data. At the present time, there are no signs of specific misuse of this data, apart from additional subscriptions for some of the affected customers. At no point did the criminals have access to the full payment details, as IBAN/credit card numbers are masked by default to only show the last five digits.
Sky Forum
In the only statement so far to “Digital TV‘ is the same wording. However, Sky still stated to the online portal that they wanted to inform those affected by the end of the week, specifically by January 27, 2023. If you haven’t received an email by then, you don’t have to worry about anything.
In the current case, there is not much you can do retrospectively, apart from following the steps recommended by Sky. The company has temporarily blocked the corresponding accounts. In order to be able to safely activate them again, customers will receive a letter with the corresponding activation code in the coming days. If you were lucky enough not to be affected by the cyber attack on Sky and now want to protect yourself better, you can check your password and change it if necessary. A strong password is still the best protection against cyber attacks of this kind.