Dutch phone giant Odido says millions of customers have been affected by the data breach

Dutch phone company Odido has confirmed that the data breach affected millions of its customers.

The company said in a statement on Thursday that unknown hackers gained access to its customer contact system and secretly downloaded large amounts of customer information. An Odido spokesperson told local Dutch media that the breach affects more than 6.2 million customers, or about a third of the country’s population.

The stolen data includes customer names, phone numbers, postal and email addresses, dates of birth, bank account numbers (IBAN), and details of customers’ government-issued ID cards, such as passport or driver’s license numbers and expiration dates.

Previous customers who received the service within the past two years may also be affected, the company said.

The data did not include customer call logs, location data, billing information or photo scans of government IDs, Odedo said. The company said the data does not impact commercial customers.

The hack affects customers of both Odido and its subsidiary Ben NL. The companies said their phone, internet and TV operations were not affected by the hack.

This is the latest in a series of data thefts targeting phone and telecom giants in recent years, as governments and financially motivated hackers continue to dig up top-secret information telecom companies hold about their customers.

Earlier this week, the Singaporean government confirmed that a China-linked hacking group had previously broken into four of the country’s largest phone giants as part of a surveillance operation, but was unable to access customers’ personal information.

All the while, hackers linked to the China-backed threat group known as Salt Typhoon have compromised hundreds of phone companies around the world, including Canada, Norway, the United Kingdom, and the United States, as part of an ongoing espionage campaign aimed at spying on senior government officials and diplomats.