Author: Selena Larson / Source: CNNMoney
Verizon confirmed on Wednesday the personal data of 6 million customers has leaked online.
The security issue, uncovered by research from cybersecurity firm UpGuard, was caused by a misconfigured security setting on a cloud server due to “human error.”
The error made customer phone numbers, names, and some PIN codes publicly available online. PIN codes are used to confirm the identity of people who call for customer service.
No loss or theft of customer information occurred, Verizon told CNN Tech.
UpGuard — the same company that discovered leaked voter data in June — initially said the error could impact up to 14 million accounts.
Chris Vickery, a researcher at UpGuard, discovered the Verizon data was exposed by NICE Systems, an Israel-based company Verizon was working with to facilitate customer service calls. The data was collected over the last six months.
Vickery alerted Verizon to the leak on June 13. The security hole was closed on June 22.
The incident stemmed from NICE security measures that were not set up properly. The company made a security setting public, instead of…
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