Unreachable software supplier wants to keep the press out of summary proceedings about a data leak: ‘Almost never happens’ | Tech

No press and no public. The company where a huge data breach occurred last week has asked the court in Rotterdam to keep the summary proceedings behind closed doors. A spokesman for the court cannot say whether the request of software supplier Nebu from Wormerveer will be granted. “I can say that something like this almost never happens.”

The duped company Blauw Research, a market researcher from Rotterdam, wants more information from the company where the leak originated, software supplier Nebu. Blue has therefore filed summary proceedings. And that would be historic, says director Jos Vink.

“It has never happened before in the Netherlands that summary proceedings are instituted against a software supplier because it does not want to provide openness. We find this refusal really unacceptable. As an agency, we have a duty to report what has happened to our clients and the authorities, but we cannot do that at the moment.”

The exact size of the data breach is still unclear. In addition to, among others, the NS (780,000 people), Friends of Amstel Live and VodafoneZiggo (700,000 people), customer data from the National Postcode Lottery (8,000 people), ProRail (4,300 people), implementing organization RVO (27,000 people) and pension fund PME have now also been leaked. . Experts take that into account millions of Dutch people unwittingly involved in the leak.

It is not yet clear whether the session can be followed by everyone. Nebu has asked that the summary proceedings be held behind closed doors. It is not known why Nebu does not want the press and public to be in the room. The case will be heard in the court in Rotterdam at 3.15 pm. Only then will it become clear whether the press can stay put.

jackpot

Blauw conducts surveys for, among others, NS, VodafoneZiggo, CZ, Friends of Amstel Live, ArboNed and Trevvel. Those parties want to find out what is going on among their supporters. Just like several other market researchers, Blauw uses Nebu software for this.

Cybercriminals had access to personal data of presumably millions of Dutch people who participated in a customer-friendliness survey in the past. Information transfer has also taken place. This not only concerns names, ages, genders and e-mail addresses, but in some cases may also include information about people’s income. Such data is a jackpot for cybercriminals.

Radio silence

Blue still says he has hardly received any information from Nebu. As a result, it is not clear exactly how much information was stolen. The tech company from Wormerveer is also not available to the media. The phone number that was previously on the site has been removed.

With the preliminary relief proceedings, Blauw still wants to obtain information, so that expert investigators from outside can find out what happened.

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