Verizon Partner Exposes 6 Million Customer Records

A company that works with Verizon exposed records of millions of customers by storing their data on an unprotected server.

The security firm UpGuard, which initially discovered the data leak and notified Verizon about it, said the Israeli company Nice Systems operated a server that housed customers' data in cloud storage. The information was left on a site that was configured to allow access by the public. Exposed data included customers' names, cell numbers and some PIN numbers, according to ZDNet, which first reported the incident.

Verizon confirmed Wednesday that data for 6 million customers was exposed, but said that none of the information was obtained by hackers.

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"We have been able to confirm that the only access to the cloud storage area by a person other than Verizon or its vendor was a researcher who brought this issue to our attention. In other words, there has been no loss or theft of Verizon or Verizon customer information," the company stated.

Verizon added that most of the information that was exposed "had no external value."

The telecom added that the PIN numbers on the server were used to authenticate customer service calls, but don't provide online access to people's accounts.

Advocacy group Public Knowledge is urging the Federal Communications Commission to investigate. The organization said that Verizon's failure to insure that its business partners protect subscribers' information "led to the exposure of millions of customer records, jeopardizing the privacy of consumers across the nation."

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