KPN issues '2 million apologies' after details of 537 customers posted online
Dutch telecoms company KPN has offered “two million apologies” in a national advertising campaign to pacify 2m subscribers who were unable to access emails on Friday and Saturday as it overhauled its systems following an earlier cyberattack.
The email shutdown is the latest blow for the former national telephone monopoly, which issued a profit warning in January due to falling market share and faces a competition inquiry over alleged price-fixing on mobile rates.
KPN suspended email access and reorganised its servers due to intrusions last month by unknown hackers who said they had downloaded about 16Gb of sensitive data from its servers. Technology websites in the Netherlands which claimed to have contact with the hackers said they had broken into the company’s systems through a core router running outdated software.