Sky customers have been told to change their passwords after a possible data breach.
The company has sent out emails to customers across the UK urging them to reset their passwords as part of a “security measure”.
Customers have been asked via email to choose a new password as Sky has had to change their existing logins, raising fears that the company has suffered some kind of breach or attack.
The email reads: “At Sky we take the security of your data and information extremely seriously. To help keep your account safe we have reset the password for your Sky account.”
The firm’s official Sky Help Team confirmed the email was genuine after several customers took to social media to check the authenticity. Many were worried that the emails were part of a phishing scam.
A Sky spokesman said: ‘To help keep customer’s accounts safe we occasionally reset the password for Sky accounts. Customers can reset their password online at Sky.com”.
The account also told some customers that the reset was linked to “part of the incident that happened last week“, possibly referencing a recent attack.
“We have been informed by the provider of Sky.com email that a number of email accounts have been accessed without permission,” its official disclosure on the incident read, “as a precautionary measure these accounts have been locked.”
Breach
Forbes reported that this apparently concerns a breach of email accounts on an unspecified date and could even be linked to the Yahoo 2014 data breach, as the American firm provides the sky.com email.
However, this recent incident was undated, making it hard to know when the incident occurred. It does mention that it concerns a “credential stuffing” attack, where hackers bombard a service with user login details (often stolen or bought on the Dark Web) to breach user accounts.
Sky says it has already locked the accounts of all affected users, who will need to contact the company to get control back.
If you think you have been affected
If your account has been locked, you should call Sky on 03442 411 280 where its automated system will unlock your iD, then you’ll need to complete all of the following steps:
Reset your Sky iD password.
Provide Sky with a recovery email that you can use if you need to reset your password again in the future and update your security question.
Reset your web browser (Google Chrome, Safari etc.).
Sign in to your Sky email account and check your email settings.
