[BreachExchange] Vodafone Tells Hacked Customers with "1234" Password to Pay Back Money

[Destry Winant]

https://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/vodafone-tells-hacked-customers-with-1234-password-to-pay-back-money/

A Czech court recently sentenced two hackers to three years in prison
for accessing Vodafone customer's mobile accounts and using them to
purchase 600,000 Czech Koruna worth of gambling services. Vodafone
reportedly wants the hacked victim's to pay for these charges as they
were using an easy password of "1234".

According to reporting from Czech news site idnes.cz, the hackers
accessed mobile customer's accounts by using the password 1234. Once
they were able to gain access, they ordered new SIM cards that they
picked up from various branches. As they knew the phone number and
password they were able to pick up the SIM card and install it in
their phones without any other verification.

This allowed the attackers to charge over 600,000 Czech Koruna, or
approximately 30K USD, for gambling services.

Vodafone says it's the customers fault for having weak passwords

Idnes.cz further reported that Vodafone is stating that it is not
their responsibility for the attacker's chargers and that the hacked
customers with easy passwords should have to pay the stolen money
back. Some victims have reported that Vodafone has sent debt
collectors to recover the money stolen by the hackers.

The victims, on the other hand, have stated that they have no idea how
their passwords were set to "1234" or that there was even an online
market that could be used to buy services. Furthermore, Vodafone has
stated that it may have been possible that one of their employees
configured this password when a phone was purchased, but the user
should still have changed it to a stronger password.

The problem is that the passwords for the My Vodafone portal, as shown
below, are only 4-6 digits long. The string in the password field
translates to "4 to 6 digit number".

While there is an automatic lockout procedure according to Jiri
Kropac, the head of Threat Detection Labs at ESET, who tested it for
BleepingComputer, the passwords requirements are still not strong
enough. This is because passwords consisting of 4-6 digits can still
be brute forced fairly quickly if there was ever a breach at the site
or if an attacker was persistent.

Vodafone's stance, though, is a dangerous precedent and one more
reason that users should make sure they are using strong passwords at
every site they visit.

BleepingComputer has contacted Vodafone for comment, but had not heard
back at the time of this publication.