back to article Bell Canada Canucks it up again: Second hack in just eight months

Executives at Bell Canada have been left with faces redder than their nation's flag – after their subscriber database was hacked for the second time in eight months. In May 2017, 1.9 million customer records were stolen from Canada's largest telco after its anti-hacking defenses failed. Now the biz has admitted miscreants have …

  1. Leedos

    Since "password" was a poor choice for a password, they changed it to p@$$w0rd. No one will ever guess that....

    1. Halfmad

      p@$$w0rd. ???

      Surely the logical thing is to opt for the next best one "password1" or to think outside of the box and go for "letmein"??

      Neither requires holding down the shift button either, bonus.

  2. Ole Juul

    business as usual

    Bell Canada doesn't care.

  3. JeffyPoooh
    Pint

    How is this even possible?

    Bell Canada's website is powered by molasses and moves at the speed of continental drift. It is challenging to navigate its terabyte frames even when connected by 300Mbps fiber.

    The hackers must have started hacking it in the early 1880s. Check the list of hacked customers; it probably includes an A.G. Bell and some guy named Comehere Watson.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Bell is really bad at security. It's such a shame they make so much profit (some of it by using very questionable and I'd say unethical sales techniques to con people into buying services they do not need: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/bell-whistleblower-reveals-high-pressure-sales-1.4404088) yet spend so little of it to protect their customers. Really sad and I am glad I am not their customer.

  5. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    It's their own fault

    Bell's rampant outsourcing catching up to them. Serves them right.

    1. Jonathan 27

      Re: It's their own fault

      Three letters, CGI. Can you remember who built that "amazing" website for the US affordable care act (HealthCare.gov), the one that was totally reliable (tm)?

      Oh yeah, CGI.

  6. FuzzyTheBear
    FAIL

    Memories ...

    Bell Canada used to be a great company. Until the shareholders and profits became the only concern of theirs in late 80's early 90's , from then on they took the plunge into Niagara Falls , customer service was outsourced to people unable to understand us in either english nor french and from then on just got worse. We have two choices Bell or Videotron here and they're both in competition as to who charges the most giving the least services , and which is worst at customer support. Both are ripoffs, Simple telephone and DSL cost me 145 CDN a month with Bell .. no mobility in there , just land line. This is the second time they , on top of that , had data stolen. First time i had a notice " your data was stolen , sorry " that was the end of it. No compensation , not a rebate , nothing. Really .. if you can stay away from Bell , keep your distances. They went from good company to the worst in Canada.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Memories ...

      Nothing will change until bad companies like Bell are forced to pay for their lack of investment in security by a government regulation. They clearly do not care about their customers' well being and people's PII that was swiped from Bell has no value to the company's management. They simply do not care because they do not have to. Your information is not secure with Bell and other companies like that.

  7. Halfmad

    Pop quiz!

    Choose as many as you fancy:

    a) Lessons will be learned

    b) We are busy blaming a subcontractor because that totally gets us off the hook

    c) We will do everything we can do prevent this from ever happening again

    1. Frank Bitterlich

      Re: Pop quiz!

      And extra bonus points for any or all of the following:

      • "Bell Canada takes the security of your data very seriously."
      • "Our customers' security is our top priority"
      • "Bell Canada is committed to keeping you data safe."

      How I love Data Breach Bullshit Bingo.

  8. Hans 1

    c) We will do everything we can do prevent this from happening again over the next 8 months

    TFTFY

    1. This post has been deleted by its author

  9. M. B.

    The funny thing is they try and sell IT security solutions as part of their portfolio. They have a number of smaller, similarly incompetent IT companies they've acquired trying to sell security solutions and there are individual consultants and larger firms making bank off the cleanup work that's been needed afterwards.

  10. JaitcH
    FAIL

    Bell Preeminent?

    More like monopolistic.

    The governing entity of Canada's telecoms industry - the CRTC [ Canadian Radio-television and Telecommunications] - is stuffed full of ex-telco reps who have ensured that Canada has the poorest selection of choice coupled with the highest rates.

    Once a telco always a telco. (Read "For Whom The Bell Tolls Not")

  11. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Welcome to the new Bell

    This was their mantra when they went chasing after profits in the late '80s (leaving service, security, and integrity behind). There was a wonderful cartoon showing lines of people at the EI centres at the time.

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