| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| PartyT |
Posted - 01/24/2010 : 07:32:59 AM
Personal details of millions of Ladbrokes gamblers, offered to the MoS by a mysterious Australian
The confidential records of millions of British gamblers who bet with top bookmaker Ladbrokes have been offered for sale to The Mail on Sunday.
The huge data theft is now at the centre of a criminal investigation after this newspaper was given the personal information of 10,000 Ladbrokes customers and offered access to its database of 4.5 million people in the UK and abroad.
Last night we alerted Ladbrokes to the damaging security breach and handed the customer files to the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), Britain's data watchdog, which immediately began to investigate.
The records include customers' home addresses, details of their gambling history, customer account numbers, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses.
The database was offered for sale by a mysterious Australian. He claimed to be a computer security expert who had worked at Ladbrokes in Britain.
During protracted negotiations via email and in one phone call, the man, who gave his name only as 'Daniel', claimed to represent a company based in Melbourne, Australia.
The company, DSS Enterprises, is run by Dinitha Subasinghe, a Sri Lankan-born IT expert.
Last night, Mr Subasinghe denied any involvement in the data theft. He designs websites and also runs a wedding planning business with his British-born girlfriend Charlene King.
Australia's companies house describes Mr Subasinghe as a 'sole trader'. His recent work has involved designing websites for estate agents in Melbourne, but he also lists Ladbrokes and the UK Ministry of Defence as clients.
By Jason Lewis, and Sandra White
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1245622/For-sale-Personal-details-millions-Ladbrokes-gamblers.html |
| 1 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| PartyT |
Posted - 01/24/2010 : 11:47:35 AM
In responce to this, Ladbrokes have issued the following statement:
[QUOTE=]LADBROKES are contacting punters to reassure them their credit card details, passwords, and other financial details are safe after confidential records of millions of gamblers who bet with the bookmaker were offered for sale to a national newspaper.
The Mail on Sunday was passed personal information on 10,000 Ladbrokes customers by a mysterious Australian, who claimed to have access to its database of 4.5 million people in Britain and abroad.
The records include home addresses, customer account numbers, details of their gambling history, dates of birth, phone numbers and email addresses.
After being alerted to the security breach on Saturday, Ladbrokes called in the police, and Britain's data watchdog, the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO), is also investigating.
The database was offered for sale by a man calling himself 'Daniel', who claimed to have worked as a computer security consultant forLadbrokes in Britain two years ago, and now based in Australia.
Ciaran O'Brien, head of PR at Ladbrokes, said: "We have been informed that a person connected to our organisation has offered certain details from a customer database to the Mail on Sunday.
"This is a criminal act and we are working with the police, the ICO and the newspaper to identify and apprehend the culprit.
"We are in the process of contacting customers to apologise for this breach in security and to reassure them that everything is being done to protect their personal information.
"Importantly this does not effect customer passwords or banking data."[/QUOTE]
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