In Britain and the territories attached to it on Coast, every household watching or recording television content during broadcast needs to hold a television license to do so. It is like a legal permission given by the Broadcasting authority to watch the content via terrestrial, satellite, cable or internet.
Cybersecurity Insiders has learned that nearly 40,000 households who applied for a TV license between August 29th and September 5th are vulnerable to hackers, as the critical info of them provided during license renewal transactions is reported to have been hacked and accessed.
A spokesperson from the TV licensing authority said that a technical update to the TV licensing website left customer data vulnerable to hackers during the said 8-day period. The compromised data could be names, addresses, emails and accounts numbers along with sort codes of around 40K customers.
In a statement issued by the UK’s TV licensing authority, it’s clearly mentioned that the back door to the database was created by a technical glitch to the website and not by a cyber attack.
However, the authorities feel that the accessed info could be used by hackers to launch phishing attacks via email in near future. So, it is urging its customers to check their bank statements for suspicious activity for the next few months.
At the same time, if any TV licensing info is being relayed to them by fraudsters, it is asking its customers not to respond to such emails and instead call TV licensing on 03005550286 to check if the correspondence is genuine.
Note- The revenue generated from Television Licenses in the UK will be used to fund television programs, radio and online services of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). The income is expected to be somewhere around £ 3.78 billion every year. And all those aged above 75 get a direct concession from the government on the licensing fee.
Website- www.tvlicensing.co.UK
