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Help and advice on Virgin Media's data incident
What happened?
We recently became aware that some personal information, stored on one of our databases has been accessed without permission. Our investigation is ongoing and we have contacted affected customers and the Information Commissioner’s Office.
The database was used to manage information about our existing and potential customers in relation to some of our marketing activities. This included: contact details (such as name, home and email address and phone numbers), technical and product information, including any requests you may have made to us using forms on our website. In a very small number of cases, it included date of birth. Please note that this is all of the types of information in the database, but not all of this information may have related to every customer.
Those affected will receive an email from email@em.virginmedia.com, so please check your spam filters to ensure you can receive it.
To reassure you, the database did NOT include any passwords or financial details, such as bank account number or credit card information.
We take our responsibility to protect personal information seriously. We know what happened, why it happened and as soon as we became aware we immediately shut down access to the database and launched a full independent forensic investigation.
The database was used to manage information about our existing and potential customers in relation to some of our marketing activities. This included: contact details (such as name, home and email address and phone numbers), technical and product information, including any requests you may have made to us using forms on our website. In a very small number of cases, it included date of birth. Please note that this is all of the types of information in the database, but not all of this information may have related to you.
We’ve contacted all the affected individuals with the advice on what to do next. For clarity, no financial details or passwords were included in the database which was accessed.
Identity theft is when someone uses someone else’s personal information to obtain goods, services or money without permission. Examples of identity theft include taking out a credit card or ordering products in someone else’s name. In this case, no financial details or passwords were included in the database which was accessed. However, if you think you have been the victim of identity theft, you should:
Contact Action Fraud if you think that a fraud has been committed at www.actionfraud.police.uk
What do I need to do?
We’re currently contacting those affected to inform them of what happened. We understand that you might be worried about this incident. We’ve set out some guidance below and given you helpful links to more resources online.
