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Hacker ransoms stolen European Central Bank personal data

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By John McCarthy, Opinion Editor

July 24, 2014 | 2 min read

The European Central Bank has admitted that a hacker contacted them to ransom personal data stolen from its databases.

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The security breach exploited the Frankfurt-based bank's public database containing the contact details and email addresses of individuals registered for bank events.

However, the hacked database is a separate entity from the ECB markert servers, both physically and digitally, ss a result no sensitive financial information was stolen.

Much of the data was encrypted but email addresses, street addresses and phone numbers were not.

The ECB said they will contact those whose details have been leaked or compromised - in addition to suggesting password changes for registrants.

German police are investigating the identity of the thief.

The bank claims to have addressed the vulnerability.

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