Afrihost client data leaked: company apologises and explains

[AfriMan]

if this was City of JHB or Tshwane,MWeb,Openweb, or MTN? would ppl react the same?>

I think regardless of the company - it's an individual's private information and if it makes any difference our staff and directors are all in the same boat as we all have our lines managed by Afrihost.

We definitely realise how serious the issue is, and how much more serious it could have been had we not been very cautious with the data we worked with.

 

[MrGray]

It's the customer name and physical address for heavens sake - while not ideal it is information which anyone can pick out of your garbage bin. Unfortunate that the information leaked (I saw it and to be honest would not have been worried if my details were on that list). Most of the customers with a landline would have the same details appear in a phone book. Not sure why people should be upset or go out on a witchhunt now.

It is potentially extremely serious for some people e.g. - women fleeing abuse, victims of identity theft, etc.

 

[MrGray]

We haven't just yet - but our management team are currently looking at our options in this regard

You have to. There may be people who's physical safety has now been compromised.

 

[AfriMan]

it probably hasn't been a massive scoop because of the speed with which the problem has been admitted and so on
compared to the CoJ etc ...

This is a really big ****up but big ****ups happen and my general view in life is that how companies fix things is of greater importance. The affected customers have a right to be told that they are affected but contacting 18k people does involve some effort and before sending out correspondence they need to properly investigate.

Correct, it's not simply a push of a button. Our management team are looking into this and will make a call on what is best for our clients and is ultimately the most transparent course of action

 

[AfriMan]

some people want the information to be private .. you respect that request. plain and simple.

Absolutely we don't disagree at all. The information was never intended to be shared or distributed - it was purely an internal planning exercise to look at how we could improve services and offer more value to our clients based on the geographical clustering of our our client base.

There was definitely no intention of violating our client's privacy - though ultimately we did screw up here

 

[The_Unbeliever]

Not nice to be in your shoes.

But I must say you're handling it a lot better than the CoJ...

 

[AfriMan]

how long was the data public?

We're not entirely sure, we know that it was private for some time before it was indexed by Google. We don't believe it was very long or that it was discovered by many parties.

It was removed as soon as we realised the mistake

 

[FNfal]

1 xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxx station street, pretoria north, Pretoria, Gauteng, 182 small_red
2 xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxst Floor, Block 3 Bentley Office Park 67 Wessel Road, Rivonia Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2191 small_red
3 xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xst Floor, Block 3 Bentley Office Park 67 Wessel Road, Rivonia Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2191
4 xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xx sapphire road , Fairfield Witkoppen, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2191
5 xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xx Swallow Drive Fourways Extension 12, Fourways, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2055

Names and addresses of 18791 clients

 

[AfriMan]

Phew, at least it's not banking details... but still... a PITA for the company concerned.

@Afriman - hope you learn from this mistake

Definitely regrettable and we make no excuses - this was our balls-up

Learning - DEFINITELY

 

[AfriMan]

1 xxxxxxx xxxxxx xxxxxx xxx station street, pretoria north, Pretoria, Gauteng, 182 small_red
2 xxxxxxx xxxxxxxxxxxx xxst Floor, Block 3 Bentley Office Park 67 Wessel Road, Rivonia Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2191 small_red
3 xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xst Floor, Block 3 Bentley Office Park 67 Wessel Road, Rivonia Sandton, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2191
4 xxxxxx xxxxxxxxxx xx sapphire road , Fairfield Witkoppen, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2191
5 xxxxxx xxxxxxxx xx Swallow Drive Fourways Extension 12, Fourways, Johannesburg, Gauteng, 2055

Names and addresses of 18791 clients

Did you access the information or are you speculating here?

 

[AfriMan]

Not nice to be in your shoes.

But I must say you're handling it a lot better than the CoJ...

I had to take my shoes off

Just being as open and honest as I can - I trust in our clients to understand that we genuinely and sincerely regret this and it was never done with anything but the best of intentions (to improve our service to them)

 

[FNfal]

Did you access the information or are you speculating here?

Any one could download the information.
Just check your files 1 to 5 and see if i am speculating.

 

[AfriMan]

You have to. There may be people who's physical safety has now been compromised.

That's unfortunately not up to me - but I trust in our management that they'll make the right decision.

 

[IzZzy]

Definitely regrettable and we make no excuses - this was our balls-up

Learning - DEFINITELY

What steps to protect client information were in place before this breach? What corrective actions have you now taken to prevent a breach of this nature going forward?

 

[AfriMan]

It is potentially extremely serious for some people e.g. - women fleeing abuse, victims of identity theft, etc.

Absolutely - we know that any information, even if it were just names, would be unacceptable. But we can assure you that no further information was leaked like invoices, bank details, ID numbers or contact numbers and email addresses

 

[AfriMan]

It's OK.... my house is already on Google maps!

LOL - I can see your house from here

Thanks for having a sense of humour about it - and just know that we are truly, truly sorry

 

[House]

It's the customer name and physical address for heavens sake - while not ideal it is information which anyone can pick out of your garbage bin. Unfortunate that the information leaked (I saw it and to be honest would not have been worried if my details were on that list). Most of the customers with a landline would have the same details appear in a phone book. Not sure why people should be upset or go out on a witchhunt now.

Well, this happened. There is no turning back.

At least the company had the honesty of admitting it and informing people that they have already taken remedial actions to prevent further exposure. It is better dealing with such company than one who refuse to answer or tries to hide it.

Name and address information is indeed important and is valuable to large syndicates. This information can be used to plan robberies or simple burglaries. Knowing where the list originates from some people can already make some deductions as to the type of income the people on the list earns.

However, this information can also be obtained from telephone directories, from municipal valuation rolls or even from the official online white pages.

So, I agree, people have nothing to worry about if it was only names and addresses that were leaked. There should be no consequences at all for Afrihost, whatsoever.

 

[AfriMan]

Please share this information with Telkom. So next time they do a line install they don't put me on the WRONG EXCHANGE!

I'm sure you don't meant that - but if we thought it would work ....

 

[Malasius]

wow epic fail

 

[Unhappy1]

Pretty sure quite a few people saw those details, there was a link to it on this forum and some other forums, this was all about ten days ago.