Great Western Railway customer accounts hacked - passwords to be reset

[whole diary]

[Oxman]

Report from the BBC^» (British Broadcasting Corporation - home page):

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-43725640

Apparently, hackers have been accessing customer accounts at GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).com, probably using stolen passwords. GWR detected the illegal access and have requested all users to reset their password.

[rogerw]

Had an email from them asking me to change my password on account of this

[eXPassenger]

There is a story in 'The Register' and the comments discuss how it was probably actioned.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/11/great_western_rail_advises_customers_to_change_passwords_following_breach/

Great Western Rail is urging all customers to change their passwords after identifying a successful attack to access GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).com accounts over the last week.
The train company said circa 1,000 accounts were directly affected out of more than a million, and has written to those customers and the Information Commissioner's Office.
"We are now asking other account holders to do the same as a precaution against potential further attempts," GWR told The Register p>
"This kind of attack uses account details harvested from other areas of the web to try and catch out consumers with poor password habits. Sadly, it is the kind of attack that is experienced on a daily basis by businesses across the globe, and is a reminder of the importance of good password practice.
"We have acted quickly and decisively with our partners to protect our customers' data, and have taken clear steps to stop it happening again."

[eightf48544]

Thanks Oxman just reset mine.

[TonyK]

Or so it seems. I received an email this morning, seemingly from GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway), saying that all passwords need to be reset. Someone, and no-one is naming names (yet) improperly accessed 1000 or so accounts. Thing is, I trust nobody online these days other than here. Is it true?

[eXPassenger]

Your suspicion is correct but it is true.  See this thread:
http://www.firstgreatwestern.info/coffeeshop/index.php?topic=19618.0

[Surrey 455]

I had an email this morning too, though it didn't mention how many accounts had been accessed.

[TonyK]

I have just tried to reset mine, but the system is down. Probably more websites than usual needing repair.

Edit: Now sorted. I'm glad I'm not trying to do it in a hurry on my "smart"phone.

[1st fan]

There is a story in 'The Register' and the comments discuss how it was probably actioned.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2018/04/11/great_western_rail_advises_customers_to_change_passwords_following_breach/

Great Western Rail is urging all customers to change their passwords after identifying a successful attack to access GWR^▸ (Great Western Railway).com accounts over the last week.
The train company said circa 1,000 accounts were directly affected out of more than a million, and has written to those customers and the Information Commissioner's Office.
"We are now asking other account holders to do the same as a precaution against potential further attempts," GWR told The Register p>

"This kind of attack uses account details harvested from other areas of the web to try and catch out consumers with poor password habits. Sadly, it is the kind of attack that is experienced on a daily basis by businesses across the globe, and is a reminder of the importance of good password practice.
"We have acted quickly and decisively with our partners to protect our customers' data, and have taken clear steps to stop it happening again."

That's where I first read about it, before the email from GWR arrived. I had to contact my parents who are very likely to have reused their passwords.

[1st fan]

I also had problems resetting mine but it went through eventually.