While the ECB has said it takes data security "extremely seriously" and that numerous safeguards are in place to keep sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands, the WSJ reports [4] that The European Central Bank said Thursday that 20,000 email addresses and other contact information of people who signed up for ECB events were stolen after one of its databases was hacked. Sadly, the hack was only discovered after an anonymous emailer asked for money for the stolen information.
As The Wall Street Journal reports, [4]
"There had been a breach of the security protecting a database serving its public website," the central bank said in a statement.
...
"No internal systems or market sensitive data were compromised," the ECB said. "The database serves parts of the ECB website that gather registrations for events such as ECB conferences and visits. It is physically separate from any internal ECB systems."
The ECB said it takes data security "extremely seriously" and that numerous safeguards are in place to keep sensitive data from falling into the wrong hands. "Market sensitive information is protected with several layers of logical and physical security controls that are actively monitored and regularly tested," an ECB spokesman said in an email.
According to the ECB, the breach was revealed after an anonymous emailer asked for money in return for the stolen information. Most of the data was encrypted, but "parts of the database included email addresses, some street addresses and phone numbers that weren't encrypted," it said.
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One wonders if the hackers were looking for the mythical OMT documentation...
