Hackers force mass website closures

Hundreds of websites have been shut down temporarily by one of the largest web hosting companies in Britain after the personal details of customers were stolen by computer hackers.

The hackers managed to access the “master database” of Fasthosts for information, including addresses, bank details, e-mails and passwords. The action is expected to lose vital business for hundreds of small companies in the run-up to Christmas.

“Businesses are already reporting large financial losses and fear that their businesses will be forced to close as a direct result.

Sal Viveros, security analyst from McAfee

Sal Viveros, security analyst from McAfee, made the following comment based on the news: “The theft of data from Fasthosts is a further example of cyber criminals continual attempts to target large organisations and businesses in order to access to vast quantities of sensitive data. Businesses are already reporting large financial losses and fear that their businesses will be forced to close as a direct result. This is not a small scale attack by any stretch of the imagination and there is potential for the thieves to have accessed everything on the database. The growing number of incidents of this type highlights the the extensive value such data can provide for cyber criminals with malicious intent. Companies of all sizes need to take note and learn from these highly publicised mistakes and continue to prioritise their security procedures in order to maintain maximum data safety.”