BBC News - PN Spam

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/6676819.stm

matt

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Customers of UK net provider Plusnet have been told to change the password for their account following a break-in by malicious hackers.
In the attack, the hackers gained control of a Plusnet's mail server and stole a list of e-mail addresses.

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Whether the detail is actually true, it is apparent that the BBC Web-Site is "assuming" that Password change request is directly related to the hacking problem - rather than being just a general tightening up of Security!!

It is. The reason for it being twofold - 1. the possibility of a trojan being installed (key logger) and 2. that the hackers might have been snooping on webmail traffic at the time.

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Customers of UK net provider Plusnet have been told to change the password for their account following a break-in by malicious hackers.

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This is true, I received an email from Plusnet outlining the break-in and advising that I should change my password because of it. A precautionary measure following the attack.

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In the attack, the hackers gained control of a Plusnet's mail server and stole a list of e-mail addresses.

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This is true. As can be seen by all the spam.

In a statement, Neil Armstrong, products director at Plusnet, said: "After a full security audit, Plusnet's webmail service was taken offline permanently at midday Wednesday, 16 May, as a precaution against a number of minor potential security vulnerabilities that had not been exploited."

That response insinuates that the whole issue began and started on the 16/05/2007. It is my understanding that a potential issue with a trojan was raised on the 05/05/2007.

Correct my if I wrong but this issue started on the 09/05/2007.

is this the BBC not reporting the incident correctly or Plusnet spin?

I didn't want to say anything earlier but it is both IMO. We all know what happened (some we don't yet) but that is the way the game is played in the media culture.

The Beeb are just reporting what PlusNet have publicly stated.

Sure, they could have done a bit of investigative journalism, but this is not a major story for them. Additionally it would be difficult for them to get any hard evidence to publish a damning report of PlusNet or the dates, before the official report from PlusNet is out and without them hearing from BT's team of crack ninja lawyers.

Quite simple really. A journalist has to write a story in so many words. They choose what they write, not us. The beeb had the same information as every other journalist who has written about this.

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It is my understanding that a potential issue with a trojan was raised on the 05/05/2007.

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Is this fact or fiction???

There have been posts from customers showing tickets they raised at around that date and questions posted to forums form around that point saying they're AV software is being triggered when accessing webmail. It could all be a figment of someone's deluded imagination, but if so I think it's a case of mass hallucination.