Everything About the Starhub Data Breach Whereby 57,000 Customers’ Personal Data Were Leaked Online

We’re constantly told by the authorities not to reveal any personal information online or over the phone with strangers, as the information could be misused.

So, if we’re careful about the calls we receive and don’t click any suspicious e-mail links, we’ll be fine, right?

Sure, unless a company you entrusted your personal data with ends up suffering a data breach.

57,000 Starhub Customers’ Personal Data Leaked Online in Data Breach

More than 57,000 Starhub customers have had their personal information leaked online in a data breach, Starhub said in a statement yesterday (6 Aug).

Its cybersecurity team was conducting online proactive surveillance when it discovered an illegally uploaded file on a third-party data dump website.

Upon first glance, the file contained “limited types of personal information related to certain individual customers,” Starhub said.

Then, when the telco did more digging, they found that the data file contained the identity card numbers, mobile numbers, and email addresses belonging to 57,191 individual customers who had subscribed to StarHub services before 2007.

Yes, the data appeared to be 14 years old.

Fortunately, no credit card or bank account information is at risk, the telco said. Its information systems and customer database weren’t compromised either.

“At this time, there is no indication that any data in this document has been maliciously misused,” it said.

Company Apologises

Starhub CEO Nikhil Eapen apologised for the data breach, saying the telco will provide support for affected customers.

“Data security and customer privacy are serious matters for StarHub, and I apologise for the concern this incident may be causing our affected customers. We will be transparent and will keep our customers updated,” he said.

To protect customers’ interest, the company said it also took the following actions on 6 July 2021:

• Activated an incident management team to assess and contain the situation
• Engaged a team of leading digital forensic and cybersecurity experts to launch an investigation
• Attempted to have the document removed from the data dump site
• Took immediate and appropriate actions to review existing security measures to protect core infrastructure and systems

Starhub said it is progressively notifying affected customers via email over the next two weeks.

To safeguard their identity and personal information, Starhub is also offering six months of complimentary credit monitoring service through Credit Bureau Singapore, which the telco encouraged its customers to sign up for.

“We assure our customers that StarHub will continue to take all protection measures to ensure their information is safe with us,” Mr Eapen said.

“We are actively reviewing current protection measures and controls in order to implement and accelerate long-term security improvements.”

Just six months ago, Singtel announced that 129,000 of its customers had their data extracted by hackers during a data breach.

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Featured Image: Terence Toh Chin Eng / Shutterstock.com