Today, the UK National Lottery operator Camelot published an official statement, revealing that two days ago, on November 28th, the company became aware of “suspicious activity” affecting a small number of players as part of its monitoring of online security.
Regardless of the speculations in the media, the company shared that neither the core National Lottery systems, nor the its databases were affected by an unauthorised access, so no actions affecting the National Lottery draws or prize payments were inflicted. In addition, no money has been embezzled through deposits or withdrawals to and from the affected customer accounts.
Camelot explained that they are doing everything possible in order to make sure what has actually happened. The National Lottery also shared its team’s belief that login details such as the e-mail and password used on its website may have been thieved from another website where the same details are being used by the affected customers. In addition, the UK-based lottery operator revealed that it does not store the full bank account and debit card information of their customers in the latter’s website accounts, so no money has been stolen.
On the other hand, the National Lottery warned that the breach may have resulted in accessing some personal details held by the affected players in their online accounts.
Currently, the National Lottery has about 9.5 million registered online users. In its statement dated November 30th, Camelot shared that the customers’ accounts that were accessed amounted to around 26,500. When it comes to some activity taking place within the account at the time of the breach, a much smaller number of players were affected. According to the details provided by the operator in its statement, fewer than 50 accounts were affected by such actions.
The company also revealed that the activity detected in the users’ accounts in question was limited to some personal details being changed, but said that some of the details may have been altered by their owners themselves. The National Lottery operator said that it has taken the necessary measures to suspend these accounts for the time being and is in the process of contacting the players they belong to. These players will be assisted to re-activate the accounts in a secure and risk-free manner. The company is to also contact all the 26,500 affected users as part of a compulsory password reset on their accounts.
Last, but not least, Camelot also assured its customers that its teams are continuously monitoring the company’s systems and are doing everything possible in order to protect them. The operator revealed that it has joined forces with the National Crime Agency as well as with the National Cyber Security Centre on the criminal matter. The company also reassured its users that keeping its customers’ personal information and banking details has always been of paramount importance to the operator.
The National Lottery operator apologised for any inconvenience the case may cause to its customers and encouraged all of them who had any concerns about their accounts’ privacy to contact it without hesitation.
- Author
Olivia Cole
